Jessica Rabbit written by Barbie Lee. Edited by Catherine Linda Michel. This is a re-edit and expanded version of the FM story.

The bleeding edge of research is called experimental for a very good reason. No one knows exactly where it is going to lead. Ricky needed help with his research. The only one he trusted was his boyhood lifelong friend Tom. Little boys never grow up, they get older. Ricky played a Halloween joke on Tom inside that experimental machine.
The Mexicans thought the lab was a drug lab and destroyed the lab and machine in their efforts to acquire it. The Cartel, Mexican Gov, FBI, CIA, NSA and even the Russians want what they think that lab was and the man who built it. Ricky and Jessica are forced to flee for their lives. How long can one hate their best friend for turning one into every man's wet dream with no way back?

“SO NOT FUNNY!” Ricky was lucky he wasn’t within reach or I would have
smacked him. He had a lopsided grin as he stared. I don’t think he could
have wiped the smirk off his face even if I had a gun in my hands and
promised to shoot him.

“Says who? You remind yourself of anyone?” He pointed toward the
mirrored dressing booth on the other side of the room.

“SAYS ME YOU DUMB SHIT! YOU JUST HAD TO GO AND DO IT TO ME TO PROOVE YOU
COULD! DIDN’T YOU!” I didn’t need the mirrors to know Ricky had changed
my sex from a man into a woman. Those big melons I was sporting on my
chest were damn big.

“CHANGE ME BACK!” What Ricky had done might have been funny to him, but
personally…, I wasn’t amused.

“Chill Jessica. You know I can’t until the time limit has lapsed. Too
soon and I’ll be scooping a bloody mess up into a bucket. Now go look in
the mirrors. It was a hell of a job. I bet you will think it was funny
when you see what you look like.” He was turning off the power and
shutting down the hologram stabilizers.

“What did you call me??? Jessica? Oh shit, you turned me into someone
you know didn’t you? GREAT! And what happens if she walks in while I’m
in this condition?” I wondered what girlfriend of Ricky’s I was a carbon
copy of? Jessica? I couldn’t recall any girlfriend of his so named.

“Go look. You’ve seen her.” Ricky’s stupid grin got even bigger if
possible.

Stepping out of the crystalline booth I darn near fell. Only by grabbing
the door edge did I manage to save myself. I was up on my toes.

“What went wrong? I can’t put my feet down. You screw up my feet along
with my body?”

“Not exactly. It was the way she looked and walked. She always wore five
inch red heels.” He had finished closing down the equipment.

The crystalline booth went dark along with my mind.

“I honestly would have no trouble killing you right now. So I’m stuck
walking on my toes for the next forty eight hours? I want you to know I
have patience and a plan. Only because you are the only one who can run
that damn machine, I’m going to let you live for forty eight more hours.
When you change me back you will die.”

“Ah my Pretty Pet, you make threats now I may never allow you back into
my toy for fear of your reprisal which strangely includes my demise?”
Ricky laughed, as he shook his head.

“I’ll pretty pet you. This joke isn’t that damn funny.” I finally made
it to the dressing booth. I’m sure my eyes bugged out as I looked at the
reflection as my heart began racing a hundred miles an hour. “SHIT!”

Ricky had walked up behind me. “Good huh? You like?”

“Hell yes I like, but not me. Promise you will make a copy for my own
and I may let you live.” The woman I was looking at was nineteen to
twenty two years old. She…, or me, had a huge over abundance in the
upstairs department, hardly any waist, and whoo hoo hips. The two ultra
long shapely legs I was standing on weren’t running second to any of the
other equipment.

The fact I couldn’t stand like a normal woman didn’t escape me. My tush
hung way out. Those monsters I carried on my chest reached forward like
ballistic missiles. Changing me where I was over endowed wasn’t enough
for Ricky’s warped fantasy. Obviously this body was designed to flaunt
my over abundance in all departments, whether I wanted to or not.

The pose was an unnatural stance for a real women except when modeling.
I tried to straighten up. For me it was almost unnatural to straighten
up.

Ricky had copied Jessica too closely for me to stand like a real
respectable woman. I was going to be stuck with the pose models did for
photographers of the sleaze magazines until Ricky changed me back. The
overkill design didn’t quit there.

Ricky gave me a tall neck. He gave me enough thick wavy red hair hanging
down over my shoulders and down my back to share with two women. The
annoying part was the way some of my hair swept forward over the right
side of my face covering my right eye. I’d brush it back and it would
flop back over my face again. If I wanted it out of my face I had to
hold it back with my right hand.

I slid my hands up behind my neck and fluffed my hair out. It spread out
like a cape before softly settling back. “Kinda went overboard didn’t
we?”

Ricky rolled his eyes. “I feel under appreciated here. Do you have any
idea how much work went into programming this and bringing it all
together? And you are complaining when all you had to do was stand in a
booth?”

Looking at him out of the corner of my eye, murder came back to the top
of my mental processes. Problem, I was changed into someone’s wet dream.
Solution, change back into me. Problem, Ricky was the only one who could
operate the damn machine. Solution, murder him after he changes me back.

I managed a smile. “Oh thank you, your worshipfullness, for this
wonderful gift. How can I ever repay you?”

Ricky took a step back. “You ain’t fooling me. The only reason I’m not
dead is because you need me, your highness.

This sarcasm was getting me nowhere. I turned my attention back into the
mirror. “She reminds me of someone? Nah, there isn’t any woman alive who
looks like this. Yet…?” I couldn’t quite put my finger on who Ricky had
copied?

“Think Jessica. Who do you think you look like? I promise you aren’t
going to run into her in the real world.” Ricky was ogling his
handiwork. Which incidentally was me.

“You bet your boots I’m not going to run into her in the real wor…? Oh
poop, you didn’t!” I studied myself in the mirrors as I slowly turned to
look over the whole body.

“JESSICA RABBIT! I look like some damn over sexed cartoon babe? I’ll
slowly boil you in hot oil after you change me back.” I flashed Ricky an
evil grin.

“Ahh ahh, ah, threats will not be taken lightly. If you persist I will
never change you back hah, hah, hah.” He tried to cackle like an evil
scientist. It fell flat.

He pointed to the polished purple glitter dress and purple heels on the
bench. “Get dressed. You can’t run around naked for the next two days. I
have plans to go out for supper tonight. Besides, I paid good money for
those clothes. You know they had to be specially tailored to fit
Jessica’s body.”

“GO OUT! And I bet you think I will be going with you? Not in this body
I’m not.” I pointed to the dress. “And sure as hell not in that almost
dress.”

Ricky got a devious look as his eyes closed to slits. “You know what
today’s date is?”

“No, and frankly I could care less.” Where was he going with this?

“October thirty first. Halloween to many. Think about it. Everyone is in
costume. You’re in costume. You said yourself it really wasn’t you.
Perfect night to go out in your perfect costume. Besides, you’re my
date.” A sinister smile spread his lips thin.

Actually the idea didn’t sound that bad. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t
dressed as a girl for Halloween a couple of times when we were kids. “We
will see.”

Despite what I was telling Ricky, he was right. I couldn’t run around
naked for the next two days. I didn’t need to take a vote to see if
Ricky’s or my clothes would fit this body. Even if it wasn’t me, it
needed a covering of some kind. I took a deep breath. The two huge
monsters felt weighty as they bobbed on my chest. What was amazing was
the way they stuck way out instead of drooping.

I lifted the polished purple glitter dress off the hanger and studied
it. I wasn’t an almost engineer for nothing.

“There is no way this dress is going to stay on this body. I’m not an
expert in women’s dresses, but there isn’t enough support to keep it on
my breasts.”

“Been taken care of. The dress has tacky areas inside in strategic
places to hold it in place. There is a tube of boob glue there also. Put
the dress on and then rub some on the end of your breasts to keep the
dress where it needs to stay.” Ricky’s evil smile got bigger if
possible.

“As long as you are claiming it is Jessica’s body and not really me
stuck in here for the next forty eight hours.”

“Pantyhose first.” He reached over and picked up the panty hose, holding
it out in my direction.

“Does Dead Meat mean anything in your vocabulary?” I wasn’t innocent in
the way women put on their pantyhose. I sat down and rolled down one leg
to slip it on my right foot and then the left. I did it right as I stood
up and checked the results.

“So far so good.” The heels were next and then the purple glitter dress.
The short zipper in back was hung. I turned my back to Ricky. “Zip me.”

It took him a few tries to work it up. The top of the dress that was
supposed to cup my breasts wasn’t staying in place. He handed me a tube
of something. “Boob glue. Don’t get it on your hands. Think in terms of
super glue.”

I hesitated. “Oh no, I’m not staying in this dress for a week until the
glue turns loose. That is just so not happening.”

“Relax Doll. We start the reverse, the glue turns loose, you drop the
dress, and Tom is back.” He opened the tube and smeared the glue inside
the bustier top. He lifted the bustier up, aimed, and pushed it home
before running his hands down under my breasts, pushing the dress in
place.

“hhhhuuuuuuuuuu……” My breath escaped me as feelings and emotions rushed
through my body and my mind. My world went dark..

“You okay?” Ricky’s concerned eyes were inches from my eyes.

I was horizontal. “What happened?” My body was still tingling all over
with emotion. I had no idea what was going on.

Ricky rose up and gave me breathing room. “Unless I’m mistaken you
fainted. You ever done this before you need to clue me in. You scared
the shit out of me. I thought something had gone wrong with the
experiment.”

“Hell no I never fainted before. I have also never been a woman before.
Watch what you’re handling next time. I don’t know what is going on but
this body seems to have sensitive areas the same as a real woman.” Ricky
backed up as I pushed myself up off the floor. Curiosity was killing me
despite that fainting trick.

I stepped up to the mirrors. There was no doubt I was Jessica Rabbit. I
had the big, high gloss, ruby red lips and long red hair to go along
with everything else. Ricky hadn’t missed a single detail.

The dress did nothing to hide my assets. From its highly reflective
purple glitter, and body hugging design it screamed, look at me! It's
intended purpose was to accent the over abundance The bustier cupped the
ends of my breasts and most of my upper body was naked. It was slit
clear up to the side of my hip on the left side. Every time I took a
step the slit let the dress open up and expose my leg clear up to the
naughty zone. I stuck my left leg out.

The funny part was I was also so damn horny I wanted to jump his bones
and screw his brains out. I so wanted to try out the equipment. “Can you
program in emotions in that damn machine while you are changing the
physical characteristics?”

“No. The brain scans and all the tests are an exact pattern before and
after. Why? Why do you ask? You feeling something femaleish?” Ricky was
wondering why I was asking?

I cupped my breasts with my hands. I sucked air before I dropped my
hands. The emotional rush was almost impossible to handle. “Femaleish?
Is that a word? You mean besides fainting like a woman? Yeah, I think. I
mean I…, this body seems to be getting more sensitive as time goes by. I
can feel the lightest breath of air on my…, on its breasts.”

Ricky was studying my eyes. “Hyper sensitive? Hummm, interesting
results. The feelings coming back are to be expected. It is all the
cells realigning and slowing back down to normal. All your nerve endings
have been sending signals to your mind. It takes time for the mind to re
establish the data and process it.”

“I can feel the air currents in the room on my legs. It feels…, it
tingles and feels nice at the same time. I hope you left that program
in the machine because you get to try it out next.” I slid my hands up
under my hair and fluffed. What was it with these damn feminine actions
I seem to be doing? I wasn’t that sure Ricky hadn’t messed with my mind
at the same time he messed with my body.

He opened up a black velvet box and handed me sparkling chandelier
earrings. For pierced ears no less.

There was enough ice in those earrings to open my own jewelry store.
“Are these real?”

He was holding out a diamond choker as I studied the earrings. “On loan.
You may keep them as long as you’re Jessica.”

I had never put in earrings in my life. I held them back out to him. “A
little help would be nice.”

“Sure.” He slipped the choker around my neck as I held my hair back
away. The left earring and then the right earring was next. Long purple
satin gloves and then he snapped a diamond bracelet and a bracelet watch
onto my left wrist.

“How long have you been planning on doing this?” I found it not funny I
was enjoying the moment for some strange reason.

“Before I ever called you back in Dallas. It wasn’t exactly you I
planned on but the project was in my mind then. If we could bring it
this far then I knew I had accomplished what I was hoping for.”

His eyes were studying me. “Don’t you understand? If I could do this
then all the rest is a cakewalk. Broken bones? Please step into the
chamber and you will be as good as new in forty eight hours. Burnt all
over your body and the medical profession has no hope you will make it?
Place him or her into the chamber and you will be your old self in forty
eight hours.”

“But…”

His eyes grew distant in thought. “Yeah but. Can you imagine what some
psycho or government would do with such a machine?”

“Ha, ha, ha, you mean like you and me?” I was shaking my head. “Look at
what you did to me and say that again.”

Ricky frowned at me. “You know what I mean. This was a joke. You gotta
admit it is the best Halloween costume you will ever own. You will be
Tom again in two days and this will only be a Kodak Moment we shared at
the time.

===============================================================

Ricky Clawson was a best friend. We had grown up together in the same
little town, went to the same school, and the same college. He worked
for his Masters in electrical quantum physics. I was in mechanical
engineering. The third year I had to quit as my funds ran out and Uncle
Sam tagged me for Vietnam.

When I got back home both of us had changed. Ricky found a job as a
research engineer for Dynamic Locks. It was all top secret hush hush and
the once a year we got together was back home when we both visited our
parents for Christmas. Ricky lived in Virginia and I found a life
working construction in Dallas as a heavy equipment operator.

Life plowed on as our parents died over the years. Ricky and I had no
reason to return home so we stopped seeing each other, even for that one
time out of the year.

My phone was ringing. I checked the clock. Two AM? “Go away.” I pulled
the pillow down over my head.

It didn’t go away. Three or four minutes later I gave up and picked it
up. “This better be one damn important call or I’ll kill you next time
we meet.”

“Good to hear your voice too.” Was the response.

“Who the hell is this? Do you know what time it is?” I checked the clock
again just to make sure.

“You still working as a cat skinner?” It replied.

“Sometimes, among other things. You need an operator?” My curiosity had
been pricked and the voice sounded familiar.

“I need an assistant. You could call yourself an operator if you want.”

Something clicked in the back of my brain. “Ricky? Is that you? Where
you at? You in Dallas? Can I buy you breakfast? You passing through or…”

“No, I’m not in Dallas. I’m back home in Radon. I need an assistant.
Someone I can trust. More than that. Someone the world can trust. You
are the only one who fits that job description. I need you Tom.”

Ricky, I know nothing about the things you do. I’m afraid I can’t help.”
Ricky was so out of my league in his field of work I knew there was
nothing I could help him with.

“Tom, you are wrong. I don’t know where to begin. So let’s begin with
you coming to the lab and see what I’m offering. When can you take a
couple days off?”

“I can head your way tomorrow I guess. You back at your parents place? I
had heard via the grapevine Ricky never sold it after his parents died.

“Well that is where I am calling from. My lab is set up in Ft. Worth. I
went as far as I could by myself and needed a break. I came back home
for a breather. If you can drive over to Ft. Worth I would like to
discuss what I am doing.”

“Name the time? Tomorrow afternoon or the day after?” I was more than
curious what Ricky had got himself into by now.

“Today at six AM if you don’t mind. I had rather it was earlier but I
just looked at the clock. I’m sorry for calling you at such a late
hour.”

“That’s okay. Means I don’t need to go back to sleep. I need to bring
anything besides me? How long this going to take?” I was looking at the
clock making calculations when I would need to leave to make Ft Worth in
another three hours. It would depend on what part of the town his lab
was in. Honestly, Ricky was dreaming if he thought he could make the
drive from Radon, Oklahoma back to Ft. Worth in three hours.

“You know where Falcon Road goes toward Bridgewater from Hwy 81?”

“Not really but I can find it.” I had a good idea about where he was
talking about. It was about an hour drive at that time of the morning
with little traffic.

“I’ll be there at the Apex truck stop. I’ll be in a red Ferrari. And
Tom…,”

“Yes?” For whatever reason Ricky was being extra cautious with that
pregnant pause.

“Remember what you did for uncle? Bring something appropriate.” Click.

“Some…,” Damn he hung up on me. What did I do for what uncle? Did Ricky
mean Uncle Sam? I was a sniper. Not a good one nor a bad one but I
managed to survive so I was a lucky one. Could he possibly mean I should
be bringing a rifle? This got more curious as it went along. I was wide
awake by now. I had some toys I figured I needed to drag along just in
case it was The Uncle Ricky was talking about.

Thirty minutes later I had the old Ford Pickup loaded and was headed
toward the address Ricky gave me. There was no way I was going to be
late to that party if there was going to be something more than words
exchanged. Living long enough to make it back home from Vietnam meant
keeping one’s head down until everyone else had stuck their head up.

The truck stop wasn’t that hard to find. I was there in fifty one
minutes and twenty eight seconds. Time meant life the moment Ricky hung
up his phone. Every second was counting toward something. I had no idea
what but until I found out we count time down to the second. I clicked
the pad in the seat beside me. It would start a new count and store the
last one in memory.

There was a mechanic’s garage across the street north of the truck stop.
Wouldn’t do. An odd car or pickup there would be noticed. An auto parts
store was to the east of the truck stop. A real estate office was to
the west. I picked the auto parts parking lot. My pickup was old enough
to look like it had gone its last mile until it received resuscitation
of some part or another. Not a perfect choice to wait but it would have
to do.

I wasn’t waiting in the Apex Truck Stop parking lot. If anyone was
listening to Ricky’s conversation they would be looking for Ricky and me
there. Or not. Depended on how experienced and professional they were.

I pulled into the auto parts lot and pulled up where most of the store
was between the pickup and Apex. I clicked the pad on the seat beside
me. New count. Opening my duffel bag I lifted out a black ski mask and a
spotters scope and swept the area, pausing to check the dark areas
around the side of buildings and toward the back of buildings. Besides
the vehicles running up and down the highway and the activity at Apex I
didn’t find any movement. First check I pushed the pad in the seat. New
count.

I rolled black sticky paper across the back window to black it out.
Anyone looking my way wouldn’t see me silhouetted in the seat. I had on
a black shirt and black pants. I pulled the ski mask over my head. The
reflection of my face wouldn’t give me away if anyone was looking at my
pickup.

At five twenty one a red Ferrari pulled into Apex and parked off to the
west side of the parking lot. I watched as Ricky got out. He was looking
around before he slid a manikin up in the drivers seat. Ricky had missed
the black Chrysler that pulled in and parked over on the opposite side
of Apex parking. Ricky pulled a hoodie up over his head and walked into
the truck stop. A woman got out of the passenger side of the black
Chrysler and walked in one of the trucker’s entrances to Apex.

Ricky would have to take care of himself inside the truck stop. I
focused on the black Chrysler with my scope. There was a man in the
driver’s seat. His primary interest was the truck stop but the way he
was looking around he was also waiting for me to show up.

No need to disappoint him. The Desert Eagle went into the holster
strapped on my hip. The needle gun went into my waistband. The knife
went down my shirt behind my head. The 9 mm went into a shoulder holster
under my left arm. The 357 featherweight went up my left sleeve and
clicked into the wrist holster. I jammed the clip into the AR lying in
the seat in case I needed more help.

After pulling the paper off the back window I dropped my ski mask back
in my duffle bag and pushed the pad in the seat. New count down. And
made mental notes about the guy in the black Chrysler. He was alert but
obviously thinking the meeting was going to take place at six as he
wasn’t that careful checking coming and going traffic. He was expecting
someone, which was me, to drive up beside or behind Ricky’s red Ferrari.

When I saw him looking back at the truck stop I started the pickup and
waited as several trucks started slowing down to pull into Apex. His
view across the street toward me would be blocked for a minute or more.
I pulled out and then circled around behind Apex where all the big
trucks were parked and killed the pickup. I picked up some bags and
trash out of the back of the pickup. I was headed for the dumpsters
behind the black Chrysler.

As I walked past the driver I held the bags up so he couldn’t see my
face and tapped on his window. “Hey buddy, have you seen Sharon? She was
going to meet me here an hour ago for a ride to Nashville.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know any Sharon.”

“She said she would be in a black Ford. You sure she didn’t ride in with
you?” I was tapping really hard on his window to aggravate him. I wanted
to piss him off so he would open the door to beat the holy shit out of
me for knocking on his window.

He moved his hand under his left armpit as he shook his head. “I said I
don’t know any Sharon. This is a Chrysler not a Ford. Get the hell away
from my car before I make you regret it.”

I really started banging on his window. “I know you know Sharon. You
told her to not ride with me to Nashville didn’t you?”

It worked. He was pissed. He unsnapped his seatbelt and was opening his
door.

Dumb, dumb, dumb…, I nailed him with the needle gun in the carotid
artery in his neck as he was turning in the seat. He looked surprised
and then shocked and then mean like he was going to get even for
something that hadn’t registered on his mind yet. I hit him behind his
left ear with the butt of the 50 caliber. Now he was addled from the
blow. The drug needed time to work its magic even if I did hit a major
artery.

“uhhhhhhh…,” He slumped down in the seat.

Keeping an eye on the truck stop so the woman didn’t catch me the same
way I caught this character I went through all his pockets. He had a
nine millimeter in the shoulder holster, billfold in his left breast
pocket, an ear piece in his left ear. That got me on high alert. I was
really checking all points now. If she slipped out the side door she
could be anywhere. I put his ear piece in my ear to listen if she was
trying to contact him.

“Karl, you okay? You want me out there or should I stay here? Karl??”

She definitely knew something was wrong. If she wasn’t spoofing she was
still in the truck stop. “I’m peeing.” I halfway whispered back into
Karl’s sleeve. If she was normal she wouldn’t ask again. The voice
wouldn’t register in her mind as it was normally an embarrassing
pregnant moment between a man and woman. Not a topic for discussion.
Conversation over and out.

Lifting the transmitter out of his pocket I slid it into my pocket. His
weapon and billfold also went along. I checked her side of the car. She
was carrying a purse when she went in so what she owned wasn’t in the
seat. I didn’t find anything of value. Glove box didn’t yield anything
valuable. Car keys and I checked the trunk. Scoped rifles and thermal
imaging scanner along with flash bangs and percussion grenades. I
slipped the keys in my pocket. I wasn’t carrying all that across the
parking lot.

The truck stop was next. Ricky was setting in a booth where he could see
his car. The woman was slowly moving down the aisle where she could keep
an eye on Ricky. I walked up behind her and shot her in the neck with
the needle gun.

She slapped her neck before she realize she wasn’t stung by any insect.
“What the hell! She was turning toward me.

I grabbed her right arm before she could reach into her purse. “Welcome
to the big leagues. Who the hell you people working for?”

“Turn loose of me before I yell rape.” Her eyes were filled with fright.

“Try to yell and I’ll rip your throat out before you take that first
breath.” I put my left hand up on the side of her neck. “Not a pretty
way to die. Your mind wants more air and there isn’t any. Takes about
three minutes for your mind to die as you try and call for help.”

“Tom, please don’t kill me.” She was truly frightened now.

“We are on a first name basis now are we. Okay hon, I gave you something
to put you to sleep. In about one minute it is going to kick in. You
will wake up in a few hours and that headache is going to be a bitch.
What is your whole name and who are you working for?” I was walking her
toward the door. Her steps were becoming hesitant.

“I’m…, I’m…, I…,” She was out.

I swept her up in my arms and carried her out to the black Chrysler.
Setting her down in the passenger’s seat I took her purse and then her
communicator. Searching her for more weapons turned up nothing. She
didn’t have a backup weapon. Either not too professional or too
comfortable doing their jobs. They got sloppy.

Walking back into the truck stop I stopped by Ricky’s table. “I’m around
back. There is a black Chrysler on the other side of the parking lot.
Get your car and meet me there.”

“Tom…, “ He was rising from the table.

I didn’t wait for an answer. I was headed out the door. Pulling up
beside the Chrysler I tossed all the stuff from the trunk of the car
into my pickup before I picked up the woman’s purse and tossed it into
the seat. I put the guy’s billfold, gun, and communicator in the seat.

By this time Ricky was behind me. “Tom, what is going on?”

“You tell me. These were your shadows. They were waiting for me to show
up. So what is going on?” I turned to face him as I waited for an
answer.

He shook his head. “Not here. Can you check if they have bugged me?”

“No, that isn’t my department. Where do you want to leave your car and
clothes?” I wasn’t sure how good these two not so professionals were. If
they were connected then Ricky’s car and phone would be bugged for voice
or location. Possibly his clothes too. I wasn’t going to wait for a
hundred or more of their friends to show up on my doorstep.

“I don’t think they had a chance to bug the car but it is possible.”
Ricky turned to look at the two sleeping in the front seat of the
Chrysler.

“There’s a tracer someplace because they weren’t that close when you
pulled in. They were following a bug. I’m not taking any chances until I
know who or how many we are dealing with. What in the hell have you got
into anyway? Don’t answer that yet until we know you are clean.” I
glanced at the percussion grenades in the back of my pickup. Someone
with access to serious toys for sure.

He dialed his phone. “Hello Triple A? This is Ricky Clawson and my
Ferrari broke down at the Apex truck stop in Ft. Worth on highway 81. It
is a red Ferrari. I will leave the keys on the floorboard under the
passenger seat. Pick it up with a car hauler and take it to the Ferrari
Dealership in Dallas for repair.”

He listened for a minute. “Yes, yes, thank you.”

He walked back to his car, leaned across the seat and tossed his keys
under the passenger side. He pointed at the man in the Chrysler. Think
his clothes will fit me?”

“No, does it matter?” I could guess where this was headed.

“His pants and jacket then?” Ricky was stripping off his own clothes as
he stood beside my pickup.

“Not his, mine. They won’t fit you either but at least I’m not a louse
so you won’t get bugs.” I pulled pants and shirt out of a bag I had on
the floor of the pickup.

“I’m betting some people will disagree with that statement.” He reached
for the pants.

I held them back. “Shorts too. We aren’t taking any chances.”

Ricky slipped his briefs off before he slipped on my pants. “Feels
scratchy.”

“You been living the soft life too long. Get used to it.” I handed him a
shirt and some sneakers.

“So you say. And if you don’t mind, I don’t plan on getting used to it.
You ready?” He was buttoning up his shirt.

I pointed at his feet. “Lose the shoes and socks.”

“Feet hurt already.” He tossed his shoes and clothes into the Ferrari
before climbing into the passenger side of the pickup.

“Where we going?” I walked around to the driver’s side and slid under
the wheel before I pulled the knife out from between my shoulder blades.

Ricky shook his head as I laid the survival knife down in the seat.
“Were you sure you had enough weapons?”

I was pulling out of the parking lot after checking for traffic. “Never
sure when I don’t know who is expected for company. Which way? Where is
this lab you want me to look at?”

“Not here for sure. I have a plane. It is in my name. They probably
believe they can track it even if they haven’t bugged it. FAA will have
a flight record even if we fly visual flight rules. I can handle all of
that. He pointed south.

“How far south?” I pulled out on the highway.

“About twelve miles to a little airport without a control tower.”

“But your lab here in Ft. Worth?” I was curious where we were going?

“Nothing of importance. It was set up for exactly this kind of problem
although I really didn’t expect it to happen so soon. I was sure they
would wait until my preliminary research had been proven before they
came in to shut me down.”

“If you been working in another lab you can bet your last lucky dime
they will be hot on that trail also. You sure you want to go there?” I
checked my gas to make sure I wasn’t going to need to call for help
because I ran out of gas somewhere.

“Well, I’m hoping I didn’t lead them to this one. I’ve been working out
of the one in Ft. Worth. It is my own private lab not the government nor
some company I am working for. Everything I think I need was routed to
Panama.”

I checked my rear view mirror as I saw a Kroger parking lot ahead. “I’m
going to mute my cell phone in case you happened to steer those bird
dogs onto me after your call last night. I want your billfold and cell
phone and any other items you might have kept after tossing your
clothes.”

Ricky put his cell phone and billfold in the seat. “That’s it unless you
want my teeth and…”

“Smart ass! Not unless you have been to the dentist in the past year and
had a filling or a tooth replaced. Think you were that hot? What in the
hell is it you are working on that is so valuable to have someone want
to track you?” I pulled into the empty parking lot.

He pointed at his cell phone lying on the seat and shook his head.
“Nothing really and I’m not sure if it will turn out to be a realistic
concept for humans. If it works will we be smart enough to use it the
way I planned?”

“Someone is spending some bucks to have you under surveillance.”
Stopping the pickup I gathered up his phone, billfold, and my phone
along with the personal items from the two snoops in the black Chrysler.
I got out and reached over to a metal toolbox in the back of my pickup.
Lifting out a handful of wrenches I laid everything inside and then put
the wrenches back on top.

“That will kill any signals coming or going.” I closed the metal box
back up and locked it. We were soon headed south toward that airport. If
Ricky’s or my phone had been tracked or his had been bugged, whoever was
watching him would know we were headed to an airport. If the team I had
taken out was the only one in the area it would take them awhile to
reorganize and get on our trail again. If Ricky was right and they
hadn’t bugged his plane then we might be off their charts for awhile.

There were too damn many ifs in the equation. I didn’t survive by
believing ifs were to my advantage and not someone else’s.

Ricky guided me to a hanger at a little airstrip south of Ft. Worth.
“Plane is there. We fly from here. Let’s roll the plane out and put your
pickup in. Unless whoever was following me is into breaking locks,
provided they managed to track us this far, your pickup will be okay.”

Ricky unlocked the hanger doors before he opened up a side door, stepped
inside, and pushed a button on the wall. The door started folding up to
the roof of the hanger.

I was looking at a twin engine turbo prop. From what little I knew about
planes it wasn’t a bargain basement plane either. Two million might let
one sit in the seat and smell the air.

Ricky picked up a nose bar hooked to the front wheel. “A little help
here. This plane is a little heavy to be pulling around by hand.”

“Sure.” I grabbed the opposite handle and helped Ricky pull the plane
out of the hanger.

I popped the cargo panel on the side of the plane behind the cabin. “My
toolbox isn’t fitting in that cargo hold. You have a smaller metal box
we can put all the goodies in to keep the signals from coming and going
while we are in the air? I’m taking that stuff with us until I go
through it and figure out who was tailing you.”

Ricky unlocked the landing door and it dropped down. He stepped inside.
A minute later he was back with an index file box. “If it fits in here
it goes. If not do what you think is best.”

“Gotchu.” I pulled the cell phones out of the toolbox one at a time and
removed the battery from each before I pulled the sim cards. Unless they
had put a RIFD chip in them they were dead now with no chance of
tattling on where they were. Still, I wasn’t taking any chances. Dead
phones, communicators, and Ricky’s billfold went into the file box.

The guns, grenades, and all my equipment went into the cargo hold after
I quick checked them for RIFD chips. I couldn’t be a hundred percent
sure no trackers were on any of the stuff, but without a scanner it was
the best I could do. Fifteen minutes after we drove into the airport we
were sitting at the end of the runway with Ricky checking everything for
takeoff.

A dark van was turning into the airport. Ricky punched the throttles
forward. I studied the van as we raced down the runway. “I don’t think
it is one of your shadows.”

“I’m not going to stick around to ask.” The twin was quick and Ricky was
already lifting the landing gear. He was on the radio telling Houston
Air Traffic control we were visual flight rules and wouldn’t be filing a
flight plan.

“Houston? What about Ft. Worth?:” I was curious why he was talking to
Houston when we were in Ft. Worth.

“Houston directs most of the airspace over the southern United States. I
would talk to Ft. Worth or Dallas if I was intending to fly in or out of
one of their airports. He leveled off at five hundred feet.

“We aren’t flying any higher? An awful lot of towers sticking up into
the air and most are higher than we are.” I was busy scanning the
horizon ahead of us to make sure we didn’t find one ourselves.

Ricky shook his head as he pointed to the instruments in front of us.
“Every single thing taller than us is mapped in there. Even if they put
up a new one that isn’t, the radar in the nose will pick it up long
before we can see it. We are staying down here to stay under everyone’s
radar and away from air traffic. I could drop down to ten feet off the
ground and still be safe but the civilians start calling in and
complaining. That is as bad as flying higher. Too high and they track
us. Too low and the complaints tell them where we are. Relax, it’s a
long flight.”

He touched a couple panels and I felt cool air on my face. “Air
conditioning? That’s quite a luxury you have there.

Ricky laughed while he studied his screens. “Not really a luxury. It is
drawn from bleed air off the turbine. Might say it is almost free except
for the initial setup. It siphons off about three horsepower from a
sixteen hundred horse power turbine. Except we don’t talk about turbines
in horsepower. We talk about them in thrust.”

An hour and twenty six minutes later I was sure that was the Rio Grande
that passed under our wing. “Are we in Mexico? I don’t have a passport.
Is this legal? They going to shoot us down as drug smugglers?”

Ricky shook his head. “Drug smugglers don’t get shot down flying south
into Mexico. Yes we have been on the low level radar screens and their
satellite surveillance systems for the past thirty minutes.”

He pointed to a screen down by his right leg with some sort of garbage
scrolling across. “Planes have a squawk box in them to tell the radar
air traffic controller who the airplane is. We are Juan Quarro from
Chihuahua, Mexico. An industrialist returning from a business trip.
Ricky Clawson and his airplane went off the scopes at an airport we
passed over and Juan Quarro flew out. Air traffic knows an airplane is
in the sky which is us but they don’t know it’s us.”

“Okay, so far so good. Now how do we get back. I’m positive they aren’t
going to buy Juan flying across into the good ol USA without stopping
for customs.” I figured my only way of getting home was to become a wet
back like so many other illegals crossing the river.

“There is customs and customs. Ports of entry are scattered all over
because it wouldn’t do to have every plane flying back into the U.S.
landing at the same airport to be inspected. Juan or some other
industrialist will fly back into the U.S. after getting an okay from
customs.” Ricky banked to the left.

“And where are we headed may I ask?”

Ricky shook his head. “Let’s not clue anyone in if there is the remotest
possibility I messed up and they bugged this plane. Panama isn’t that
big of a place.”

That got my attention.

Ricky put his finger to his mouth and shook his head no. He picked up a
pad and wrote Acapulco on it.

=============================================================

Six hours and eighteen minutes later Ricky set us down on a little dusty
strip. He drove a car out before pushing the plane back into a metal
hanger. Ricky closed the hanger doors and flipped a switch. “Don’t touch
the walls. They are electrified now. Won’t kill you but it will bite.
Turned this hanger into a Faraday Cage. I can promise you there are no
signals coming or going from us or that plane no matter what they are
using for a tracking device.”

“Great. Good time to see who was tracking you.” I retrieved the contents
from the baggage compartment and checked the billfold I took off the
man. “James Hutch works for the CIA. Good grief I cocked a CIA agent.
Served him right for being sloppy.”

The woman’s purse was next. I pulled out her billfold. “Cathy
Blankenship. She is CIA and has a business card from Dynamic Locks. Your
old company wants you back?”

Ricky grimaced. “They want what I worked on the past few years after I
retired from the company.”

“And the CIA? What is the connection?”

“Dynamic Locks is all top secret military stuff. I can’t tell you
because I’m not allowed to. Although my loyalty is in question now they
have turned the dogs loose on me.” His eyes took on a distant stare as
his mind turned back the pages of life.

“Okay, what is it that you are working on they think belongs to them?”
My curiosity was killing me. Besides the fact I was headed for Federal
prison for roughing up a couple Federal agents. I deserved to know why
my life was now toast if I ever returned to the U.S.

“As far as they knew I was working on the Philadelphia Project. They…”

“You mean where time and matter are displaced and shifted in time? That
was a big joke wasn’t it?” I couldn’t believe Ricky was telling me he
had managed to time travel?

“The Philadelphia Project is what I hoped they thought I was working on.
Actually I was working on physical matter, molecular flow,
displacement.”

“Put that in English.” I had no idea if Ricky had shifted time or what
he had done?

“I can alter the physical form of living tissue. It is akin to molding
clay. It takes a high energy charge in a ultra sonic reverberation
chamber of crystal to make cellular structure release from each cell
surrounding it. Then…”

“Man that sounds sick. You stick living tissue into a blender and come
up with a…, a…, blob?”

Ricky laughed. “Kinda along that same thought train. Except each dynamic
wave of oscillation and frequency is controlled where the tissue is
molded to a desired shape.”

“You can make He Men? No wonder the government would kill to have you
back in their lab building your toys.”

Ricky shook his head. “No, I’m not interested in building an army of He
Men. I want to rebuild people’s lives that have been destroyed by an
accident such as losing a limb or a leg. Eyes are out of the picture
right now but maybe in time we can replace those also.”

He looked as sad as I had ever seen him, even after his parents died.
“With every good idea, evil men want to use that idea for evil purposes.
I do not want to turn the next atomic bomb loose on humanity for
destroying nations.”

“Okay, when are you going to start building this thing?” I wanted to
know where I fit in with Ricky’s plans?

“I’ve built it.”

“WHAT!” That shocked me. “And you tried it out already and it works?”

“I’ve gone as far as I can without someone I trust to help. And they
have to trust me.” He was studying me.

“You earned my trust a long time ago when we were kids. Where is this
gadget of yours?” I was eager to see what this future device looked
like.

“What you going to do with those?” Ricky pointed to the man and woman’s
personal things.

“Have a good mind to burn them. Serve them right. If you can Fed Ex it
back without the return address coming up here then I guess we might as
well try and make peace with the agents.” Except for the rifles and
grenades I laid everything in a pile on the floor.

“I can make that happen. Your fingerprints are all over everything. I’ll
have them scrubbed before they go back.” He opened the side door and
motioned for me to follow. “Let’s go see that lab.”

The lab wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when Ricky said he had a lab.
The building was adobe. It looked kinda old and tired. It started
getting interesting when Ricky opened the old weathered wooden door and
I was looking at a gleaming metal door five feet past that down a metal
hallway. When he unlocked and opened that door there was another metal
hallway and another metal door.

“Just what is it you are doing in this lab?”

Ricky opened the last door and stepped inside without answering.

Following him in I was in a metal room with a metal floor. My eyes were
drawn to a glass booth in the middle of the room. It was on a pedestal
surrounded by an array of wiring, tubes, and things pointed at it that
looked like ray guns. All of which was inside a huge round wire cage.

“Okay, I’m impressed. Even if it doesn’t do anything it took a lot of
time to put it all together.” When I could take my eyes off the
centerpiece I scanned the room. The whole darn room was filled with high
tech electronic, electrical equipment of some kind or another.

Ricky was busy at a console. It seemed the whole room started to hum.

“You fixing to microwave us? If you are, then count me out. I want to
live a few more years, even if I’m dodging the CIA while living in some
remote back water hole.” It wasn’t all said in jest.

“Relax. You’re safer in here with less radiation, electrical waves,
radio waves, radar waves, and that isn’t counting the solar burn on your
skin. You are standing in a dead zone so to speak. Everything around you
is balanced energy and that includes the light to a limited extent.”

He pointed toward the wire cage and glass chamber. “The light was the
problem. Even though I could neutralize all the electrical and radiation
one finds in our lives, I didn’t figure in the effect of light. It took
me a long time to understand why it wasn’t working because the physics
said it should.”

“We might as well start if you are ready. Take all your clothes off and
step into the crystaline chamber.” The chamber rose up in the air.

“Say what? You want me to strip naked and step into that thing? What in
the hell do you have in mind?” I wasn’t moving until I knew what was
going to happen to me.

“First I have to map you so I will know exactly what needs to be done to
put you back together when we adjust something.” He was waving me toward
the chamber.

“Put me back together? Now hold on a second and let’s discuss this. This
isn’t one of those damn star wars things where you are going to
transport me into another dimension or another room is it?” Honestly I
was ready to leave. Ricky’s choo choo might have jumped the tracks. I
didn’t intend to find out after I had been blasted into the ether.

“Tom, I am only going to map you. Every single cell in your body has a
purpose and a place it belongs. That is what we are going to do for now.
Nothing is moved or changed in the mapping process. Because the basic
cellular level is energized you can’t go back into the booth any sooner
than forty eight hours. It gives the living tissue time to normalize.
That is how it works. In two days if you agree then you will go back in
and I will remove that big mole or age spot on your left arm. Two days
after that we remap you to make sure everything is perfectly normal
which includes the area where the mole was.”

He turned his attention toward me. “Trust is earned over time. As kids I
trusted you with my life and I strongly believed you trusted me. Have I
done anything to lose that trust?”

I took a deep breath as I gave it some thought. “Everything?” I was
shedding my clothes.

“Everything. Anything that is not living tissue can not be in the
chamber with you.” He was back to working his console.

I felt kinda funny as I opened the door to the wire cage, walked in, and
then stood under the glass chamber as it started coming down around me.
I checked to make sure my toes weren’t going to be under the edge as it
settled. I was standing on a glass floor. The chamber touched the floor
and everything lifted back up again. Great! I was encapsulated inside a
glass tube floating in space. Glass top, glass sides, glass floor. I was
hoping this job finished up before I ran out of oxygen.

The walls, ceiling, and floor glowed a pinkish white. I felt something
but couldn’t quite explain what it was. It wasn’t just on my skin but
all through me. I ran some memories through my mind when Ricky and I
were playing on the creek chasing squirrels to make sure I still had a
mind.

The tube settled back down on the floor and the top raised up off the
bottom. I was free again and I hadn't suffocated or lost anything that I
knew of.

“Got the data. Come on out and get dressed.” Ricky was studying his
console.

“That was quick.” I had made it back out and was slipping into my shorts
and pants.

“Yeah, didn’t take long. Eight hours and some.” Came across the room.

“Eight…, Yeah, really, couple minutes?” I pulled my shirt on.

“Really, total time eight hours twenty one minutes, thirty nine seconds,
fifty six milliseconds.” He glanced at the console as he was making some
notes by hand.

“You jest! There wasn’t enough air in there for eight hours of loafing.
What, you crack the seal every now and then?” I picked up my watch to
take a look at the time and my brain stopped.

He was looking in my direction when I picked up my watch. “Now do you
believe me? You were in stasis or hibernation after the first ten
seconds. Everything you think you were seeing and doing was REM mode or
dreaming although there is no actual rapid eye movement.”

“The hell you say!” My watch was lying to me the same as Ricky was. I
had been in that damn thing for over eight hours.

I felt me to make sure I was awake and this part wasn’t a dream. “That
thing could do some serious screwing with a person’s mind.”

“More ways than one. Now do you understand why you are the only one I
could trust to know about this project?” Parts of the room were becoming
quiet again.

“It will be forty eight hours before you can go back into the chamber.
Tom, when was the last time you saw a doctor?” Ricky was heading my
direction.

“I don’t know. Four or five years maybe. The mole bother you?” I slid up
my shirtsleeve to take a look. It looked the same as it always had for
the past twenty years. It couldn’t be melanoma.

He handed me a piece of paper with a name on it. “It’s time you saw a
doctor.”

“But…”

“No buts. You see a doctor or we are finished. I’ll take you back to
Dallas, It was nice visiting with you one last time.” His expression
said he was dead serious.

“Whatever!” I grouched. I didn’t need a doctor. Not unless that damn
machine Ricky had just run me through gave me some disease.

==============================================================

In the next three days I went from complacent where I had a life to pure
hell where I had no life. The day after Ricky ran me through his machine
I went to see that doctor he was mentioning. That doc ran me through so
many tests and x-rays I was positive I was going to glow in the dark if
Ricky’s machine hadn’t already made that a possibility.

The third day I was in the doctor’s clinic for the results of the tests.
He keep looking at the charts and wouldn’t look at me. “You have
cancer.”

That didn’t rock me. “So, zap it or whatever you guys do.”

“It has spread throughout your body. Your lungs, your kidneys, your
lymph nodes, your brain. Been feeling weak lately, having headaches,
eating and want to vomit? It is the cancer. You have a month more or
less to live. I’m sorry.” He closed up his folder.

That did rock me. Everything he described I had been experiencing. I put
it off to old age and a hard life. There wasn’t anything wrong with me.
He was wrong. He had picked up the wrong charts. I didn’t have cancer. I
wasn’t going to die. I was just getting older was all.

Ricky had drove me to the clinic since I didn’t know the town or the
streets. He didn’t want me to wander into any drug cartel area and lose
my life. HAH! That would have been the easy way to die.

“Ricky, you wasted your time. I don’t think I’ll be sticking around to
help you with your project.” I was studying the nothing out the side
window as Ricky drove past all the houses.

“You can’t bail out on me now. We just started. There isn’t a single
person in this world I would trust to know what I’m doing besides you.”
He slowed down and steered around some kids playing in the street.

“Nothing personal but I won’t be there for you. Sorry, you picked the
wrong friend to trust this time.” I honestly felt sick at my stomach.
Was it the cancer?

“It is personal. I’m not buying what you are selling. You want to go off
and die someplace all by yourself because you don’t want to be a burden.
That’s a real friend for you. Don’t you understand that is true
friendship? I know what the doctor told you. I have my sources. The
machine told me when it mapped you. I knew you wouldn’t believe me even
if we are the best of friends. This is all too new for you to take in
all at once. I’ll let you pick out your own doctors and you can go to as
many as you want but the answer is the same from all except one.”

That got my attention. “Who? You know a doctor that has a cure?”

He shook his head. “Not a doctor but a cure never the less.”

“Who?” I really wasn’t ready to die.

“Me. Do you trust me? I honestly didn’t plan this. I didn’t know you had
terminal cancer until the machine told me. What I do know is we can
remove all of it. Not all at once. That would kill you quicker than the
cancer is killing you. We will map out the most strategic areas and
start there. You can only get in the machine every forty eight hours so
it will be a long process. I’m not letting you die.” He turned down a
little side street leading to the lab.

Back in the lab Ricky brought up my body map on a monitor. Personally I
wasn’t that impressed. I looked like some alien of different colored
areas. He pointed to the healthy areas and then the mole. The mole was a
darker gray blob. I thought it would be flat like the top of my skin but
it had sunk its tentacles for its blood supply down into my arm.

Ricky was patient showing me all the information he had learned the past
twelve years as he built the lab and tested it on frogs, fish, birds,
and animals. I knew it was because he wanted me to understand why he
believed in his equipment and believed in me with unshakable faith.

“Ready?” Ricky was at the console and I was stark naked with the glass
chamber lowering down around me.

I nodded. It was time to see what Ricky’s machine was capable of. The
chamber touched the glass floor I was standing on and then everything
rose back up in the air. I was sealed in. The walls, ceiling, and floor
glowed a pinkish white. I felt a slight tingle inside and outside me.

Slowly, ever so slowly the mole floated off my arm as pieces of blood
and tissue passed out of my skin. Something floated past the top of my
eyes. I was sure it was my brain leaking out of my skull. No matter,
there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t move or scream. I was positive
Ricky’s machine had gone rogue and was tearing me apart. I didn’t care.
Hell, I was going to die anyway. Now was as good as time as any, before
the cancer made me so sick I couldn’t think, eat, or drink.

“You okay?” Ricky was leaning over me.

“Never felt better. You said I would be in stasis after five seconds. I
was watching as you pulled pieces of me off.” I was tingling all over, I
felt hot, my whole body felt like it was moving under the skin. I
managed to check my surroundings. I was curled up in a ball lying on the
floor of the chamber.

“Since this is all new ground I’m not sure you were cognitive during all
that. I believe it was more in your mind than real. I want you to record
what you were really feeling rather than some smart assed answer. As
soon as you can of course. Think you can stand up?” He had backed up to
give me some room as he offered his hand to help.

“Not sure.” I felt as weak as a kitten and as limp as a wet dishrag.

“Try and I’ll help. He put his hands under my armpits and lifted.

I was standing but wasn’t sure I would walk. Nothing felt right. I
didn’t know if I had any motor skills or not. I only wanted to lie down
and pass out. “How long? Eight hours?”

“No, took longer with all the manipulation and removing of rogue cells.
It isn’t like they are all on the surface and can be picked off. Even
when they are detached it takes moving healthy cells out of the way to
remove the cancer from the body. Then the good cells have to be put back
where they belong. Took over twenty hours this time.” Ricky was
basically carrying me to a bed beside a dressing room he had set up.

“Am I still me?” I had memories but was no longer sure they were my own.

“You are still you. You are going to be a lot thinner and weigh a whole
lot less when this is over. It will still be you. Your mind will still
be your mind.” He laid me down on the bed.

Ricky…,”

“Let it go Tom. We didn’t plan it this way but it happened. Get some
rest. If you don’t feel like giving it another try in forty eight hours
we can wait. I pulled a lot of the really bad stuff out of your vital
organs this time. Even if you never step inside that machine again I
think we gave you a two year advance on life.” He pulled a blanket up
over me and left.

===============================================================

“Who are you?” I was looking at a very nice looking Mexican lady.

“She doesn’t understand English.” Came from the other side of the room.

I looked around. There was a guy that belonged to the voice on the other
side of the room. I was lying in a bed with a needle stuck up in my
vein. “What is going on?”

“Your friend brought you in. Said you were dehydrated and had been
without food for several days. How long were you two out on the ocean?”
He had walked over to look down at me.

“Ocean? Uh, yeah, I guess I’m still a little groggy. I don’t remember.
The days kinda all blurred together after the first couple. Did he say
where he was going after he dropped me off?”

“No but he said he would be back to check on you every day.”

“Everyday? How long have I been here?” I was hoping what Ricky had done
to me didn’t escape the lab. How much did he have to tell these people
besides I was lost on the ocean?

“Your friend brought you in four days ago. Funny you were so sick and he
didn’t look harmed at all.”

He held up his hand in stop fashion before I could respond. “Do not
worry. Your friend paid us very well to make sure the story of getting
lost on the ocean was the one everyone heard. Many things go on in
Mexico that are not repeated. I leave you in the capable hands of Maria.
Your friend should be back to pick you up in an hour or two. When you
feel like it you can get dressed.” He pointed to old worn out jeans, a
tired poncho, and a well used sombrero in a chair against the wall.
“Best if gringos aren’t seen coming and going from the hospital.
Questions get asked by people who don’t need to know.”

When he walked out of the room I felt like getting dressed. I indicated
to the lady I wanted the IV out of my arm. She swabbed it with alcohol
and put a Band-Aid on it after removing the needle. Even with the
woman’s help it took me awhile to get dressed. I felt like I was beat
up, tossed out of the back of a truck, and run over by Dallas freeway
traffic at rush hour. Figuratively speaking. In plain simple English I
hurt like hell all over and was weak as a baby. Too tired to go on and
nowhere to go without a plan, I laid back down on the bed.

It was a couple hours later Ricky walked into the room. He had dressed
down to look local. He took a hard look and shook his head. “You look
like shit. How you feel?”

With huge effort I pushed myself up off the bed. “I feel like shit so
your diagnoses was straight on. Now what?”

“Well if you feel up to it we will go fishing again and see if you can
catch that big one that almost pulled you in."

“I guess I can make the boat but I don’t think I’ll be fishing for
awhile. Would you mind if we didn’t?” There was no doubt Ricky was
talking in code about the lab and me going back into that machine again.

“We will go out on the boat then and take some time off.” He moved over
to one side of me as I stood up to steady me.

With his help I managed to walk out to an old beat up seventy something
Chevy. “Nice ride.”

“Fits the budget and doesn’t draw attention. We aren’t worth kidnapping
to the local drug cartels. We don’t have enough money to be worth the
effort when there are bigger richer Americans at hand.” After easing me
into the seat he walked around to the driver’s side and slid in.

“Your AR is under the seat. The CIA’s nine millimeter is in the fold of
the seat by your right hand. Your 50 is in the fold of the seat by your
left hand. I have a SIAGA under my seat. The police and Federalies are
just as corrupt as the drug lords down here. Do not let them have the
first shot or we are both dead.” He was pulling away from the little
clinic.

Despite my pain and weakness that got my adrenaline pumping. “Expecting
a problem?”

“No but I don’t want to be laid out in the street with my head hacked
off by any of them either. Somebody points a gun at me I plan on
shooting first and disappearing.” He stayed off the main street and took
all the side streets back to the lab.

==============================================================

It was forty one days before I worked up the courage and strength to
step back into that machine of his. Ricky told me I could wait as long
as I wanted, or quit if that was what I wanted. I didn’t know what a
third trip through the machine would do to me. Didn’t make any
difference. Ricky had only extended my life not gave it back. The cancer
was still in me. It had returned with a vengeance according to the
clinic tests and x-rays.

One more time I was standing inside the chamber as it slowly dropped,
attached to the glass bottom, and rose up again. “Here we go.”

There were bees humming in the pasture. Ricky had picked up a cow pie
and gave it his best toss. He must have picked the perfect one because,
like a Frisbee, it sailed forever before landing back in the pasture and
busting into a hundred pieces. I had to give it a try. The one I picked
wasn’t that dry. I ended up with a handful of cow poop. Ricky was
laughing as he ran and I chased him with the intent of sharing. Finally
we both dropped at the peanut field. I was tired. Ricky turned and
looked worried. I laid down in the dirt. I was really tired. Ricky could
go on and play without me. My best friend came back and sat down beside
me. He wasn’t leaving me no matter what.

“Three more times. Five at the most.”

“What?” I was lying in bed with Ricky hovering over me.

“We aren’t working with any known factors here. From the percentage we
started with and what I have been able to remove each time. It will take
three more times. If it gets trickier as the amount gets less then it
may take five more times.” Ricky backed up to give me a little space.

“How long this time?”

“Sixteen hours, ten minutes, six seconds, and ninety milliseconds. How
you feel?”

“Probably about the same way I look. You can’t look much better. You
have been up for sixteen hours straight?” I tried to take a deep breath
and it hurt.

“Almost twenty but who’s counting? You feel like some soup or shall I
run you back to the clinic and have them drop an IV in you?” He waited
for an answer.

“Try that soup thing. I don’t feel like it. I don’t want to go back to
the clinic either. Every time we venture out we are risking someone
knowing about this place. I would suggest guards. The problem is the
more who know then the bigger the problem becomes. Guards share with
their friends and their wives they are guarding someplace and others
become interested in what is so valuable to be hiring guards.”

Ricky nodded in agreement. “Soup it is then. No clinic and no guards.”

Sleeping seemed to be my thing every time Ricky put me through that
chamber. This time I ate my soup and was out for two days. Ricky said it
was because my body was adjusting for everything that had been taken out
and rearranged.

I didn’t feel like going back into that chamber ever again but one more
time down to the clinic made me understand how much Ricky and his
machine were doing for me. The cancer was still there and hard to find.
No big tumors, no cancer in my liver, lungs, or my head. The tests and
x-rays were clearing up.

Day twenty nine after that last trip I stepped back into that chamber of
horrors on my own free will. Ricky was riding his bicycle ahead of me.
One of the kids on the sidewalk broke from the other two. He ran into
the street as Ricky was ridding past. He gave Ricky a hard push to the
side. Ricky tried to turn with the push but it was too hard and too
quick. He spilled. I ran my bicycle straight at the kid picking up speed
before I collided. He went down, I went ass end over teacup, and we were
all three sprawled out on the street.

The other two decided to join in and help their friend finish what he no
longer was capable of. I pushed up off the street rolling my backpack
off my back as I did. I was turning and the dumb bastards thought I was
running away. I kept turning with the backpack full of schoolbooks now
at arms length plus the length of the straps. It was a lethal ball and
chain except it was a backpack and schoolbooks. Not quite as lethal,
thank God, because I was swinging with all my might. It connected with
the first kid on his left shoulder and bounced into his head knocking
him over into the other kid on his right. The kid I hit was through.
With his two buddies out of the fight and himself not in that good of
shape now, the third kid didn’t want any more,

I either forgot or it never happened. I was wondering if Ricky’s machine
was messing with my mind?

“You’re looking better.” Ricky had halfway carried me to the bed after
that last trip.

“I don’t feel as rough as I did those other times. Think I’m getting use
to it or what?”

“Tom I really don’t know if one’s body adjusts to having things
rearranged. Or if we aren’t causing such a radical change in what we are
pulling out. Think you can eat some soup? You were in there for eleven
hours and change.”

“Taking less time or what is going on?” I really wasn’t hungry and I
didn’t feel that beat up this time.

“Less to remove and it was a lot easier to move your healthy parts out
of the way to carry out the trash. I’m not sure but I think it has
something to do with the health of the person. Stands to reason a
healthy person can stand a lot more things than a sick one. And you
gotta admit you were one sick puppy when we first started whether you
want to admit it or not.”

“Yeah, I guess. I think I’ll make me some soup to keep that health thing
going.” I pushed up off the bed looking for pants.

“You feel up to it?” Ricky looked concerned.

“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be doing it. I don’t want to go back to that
clinic either. I can manage. I’m feeling better by the minute.” I found
my pants and headed for the bar to find the soup and microwave. “Is it
safe to turn on the microwave?”

“Machine is turned off. You can plug in the microwave. Be sure and
unplug it when you are through. Messes with my machine.”

“Little machine messes with big machine? I can’t wait to tell this story
in twenty years.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to finish the job, but I wanted someone to
whip me to make me go back into that damn chamber. Ricky was
understanding and told me I could take as long as I wanted or I could
quit if I wanted.

==============================================================

Day thirty five after that third trip I was standing inside the chamber.
I met her at the Rodeo. She was with an older couple which I learned
later were her parents. She was a beautiful woman by anyone’s standards.
I think I spent as much time admiring her as I did watching the rodeo.
She was slim built and packed a whole lot of wow into those rodeo pants
she was wearing.

Tan cowgirl boots, big ol western cowboy belt buckle, red western cut
shirt, white cowboy hat was her attire. Her black eyes sparkled every
time she glanced in my direction. The smile on those ruby red lips was
tantalizing. It was impossible to ask her for a name without being so
blatantly forward it would be akin to the Titanic going down. So I
didn’t. I finally decided I was being crass staring at her so I made it
down to the refreshment stand behind the bleachers.

“Coke.” I held out a couple dollars for the drink.

“I’ll have one too.” Was the soft voice behind me.

I turned to check. It was the Rodeo Queen I had been admiring most of
the evening. “May I pay for it?”

“If you like.” She smiled.

My heart flash melted as I dug for a couple more dollars.

“I’m Tracy.” She held out her hand.

“uh…, uh…, I’m…, nice to meet you Tracy.”

She giggled, knowing she had fried my brain. She took the coke the guy
behind the counter was trying to hand her.

“You ridding the barrels tonight Tracy?” The guy asked, after she was
holding the coke.

“Sure am. You don’t expect me to miss out on being top barrel racer do
you Paul? You betting against me again?” She gave me a wink.

“Not tonight. I learned my lesson last week at El Dorado. You cost me a
hundred dollars last week when you beat Barbara Ann. I plan on making it
back tonight. You better be top dog tonight or I’m gonna lose another
hundred.” He turned toward some other customers who were waiting for
hotdogs.

“Barrel racer? That means you ride the rodeo circuit. Ft. Worth a short
cut to the next ride?” I knew I would never see the girl of my dreams
again after tonight.

Tracy turned and was walking behind the bleachers toward the trailers
and livestock area. “Found your voice did you? You want to try again on
who you are Mr. Uh?”

That caught me off guard. “It is hard to engage the mind and get the
thought processes connected with the speech processes when so much
stunning beauty is standing so close. My name is Tom now that I had time
to think what name my parents gave me when I was born.”

She laughed. “Nice save there Mr. Smooth Talker. Since you seem to be so
bashful I guess it is up to me to ask you if you would like to go get a
bite to eat after I race the barrels? I haven’t had anything since I
drove in from Bolder this morning.”

“Me? I mean sure. I mean I would…, Miss Tracy would you mind if a heavy
equipment operator asked you to have supper with him after you race the
barrels?” My mind was finally getting back in gear.

“Why, I would love to have supper with you Tom. I have to load up my
horse after I race. Do you mind if I bring Whistle? That’s my horse. We
won’t invite her in the restaurant to eat with us. She doesn’t have the
best table manners and would probably end up embarrassing us.” She
pointed at the horse standing behind one of the trailers. “Meet me at
Del Quincios at nine. I’m the one pulling the horse trailer.”

“I’ll be there.” I was in love with one of the prettiest, boldest girls
I had ever met in my whole life. She wasn’t any wilting violet for sure.
I headed back to the bleachers to watch the barrel racers before heading
to that restaurant.

I checked my watch one last time before I started up my old Ford to
leave the parking lot of Del Quincios. It was after midnight. She had
made a fool out of me. She set me up and then left me waiting. She had
my heart and soul in her hands and then broke it to pieces. The girl was
a rodeo tramp, a mean conniving bitch. She probably was sharing her
story with all her cowboy friends and laughing while thinking of me
sitting here by myself waiting for her to show.

I was pissed. My supper consisted of a six pack of Coors, a bottle of
apricot brandy, and only God knows how much Vodka before I passed out in
my apartment. Next morning at the convenience store I picked up a big
coffee and a paper, Ft. Worth Register. I tossed the paper on the seat
as I slid up into the seat. It flopped open to the front page. There was
a picture of a tangled mess of pickup and horse trailer with a big semi
on top of them. ‘Tracy Koth killed in accident’ Page two. My heart was
racing as I flipped open to page two.

‘Tracy Koth, the number one women’s barrel racer, was killed when a semi
ran a stoplight and broad sided her pickup. She was pronounced dead at
the scene. Her horse Whistle had to be put down as the vet said the
injuries were too great for her to survive. She had won top honors in
women’s barrel racing in the Ft. Worth Rodeo only an hour before she was
killed. Her parents said she was going to a restaurant to have dinner
with a man she called Tom.

Tracy will be sorely missed in the Rodeo Circuit as her thousands of
fans, and we suspect thousands of friends, all loved her. Tracy was Miss
Rodeo Queen two years earlier. More on when and where her services will
be held in tomorrows paper.’

My stomach was rolling. I was so ashamed of what I had been thinking
last night when she didn’t show. It was too late. I opened the door as
it all came up. I threw up all over the pavement beside the pickup.
Tracy had broken my heart and my life into a million pieces and it
wasn’t her fault. Would she ever forgive me? I hurled and hurled some
more until my stomach was as empty as my soul.

I opened my eyes. Ricky was hovering over me. I was on the floor of the
cage.

“You alright? Why are you crying? Did it hurt that bad?”

I stood up with Ricky’s help. “That damn booth of yours does more than
move things around. It screws with the mind also. Memories aren’t just
memories in there. They come back in full living color and are relived.
Memories stop being past tense and turn into present tense again.”

“The memory? Was it that bad? Did it hurt that much?” He helped me over
to the bed.

“Yes it hurt. She…,” I felt the tears trickle down my cheeks.

“You never talked about it. All you said was you knew a girl and that
was all you would tell me. Is it the same one you met in Ft. Worth?”
Ricky handed me a cup of water.

“Yeah, that one. Let it go. I can’t handle this any more.” I took a sip
and handed the cup back.

It was two weeks before Ricky said he wanted to map me again to see if
all the cancer had been removed. I was hesitant about walking back into
that thing. I didn’t think I could handle one more rerun of Tracy. The
heart can only be broken into a million pieces so many times. At some
point it doesn’t reassemble.

“You been having the same memories each time?” Ricky was setting the
controls as I stared at the chamber.

“No.” I still didn’t want inside that thing.

“Do you have any more that hurt as bad as the girl memory?” The glass
cylinder lifted up waiting for me to step in.

“Okay.” I walked up and stood on the glass floor. The chamber came down.

“You sorry son of a bitch! I told you to push the dirt over to the east
side of the lot not the west side.” The foreman was busy cussing me out
for his mistake.

“You said west side.” I pointed to the two laborers off to the side
holding onto their shovels. “Ask them. They will tell you.”

“Juan, Pedro, did I say push the dirt to the east side or not?” He
turned to glare at the two laborers.

“We did not hear. You must of said east side.” Juan shrugged his
shoulders, took a glance in my direction and then stared at the ground
at his feet.

“See, I did say east side.” The foreman growled at me. “You can pay for
the fuel and your time to move that dirt to the other side. And you can
pay for their time too since they will be waiting for you to move that
dirt before they can do their job.”

“I tell you what.” I climbed down off the D-9 cat. “You can run this cat
yourself and move that dirt and pay for their time because I quit.” I
couldn’t blame the laborers for not speaking up. They were desperate for
a job. Telling the foreman he screwed up isn’t a bridge builder to
future security.

“YOU CAN’T QUIT! You get your ass back up on that cat and do your job!
You walk off and you won’t get a paycheck.” He was fuming as I headed
for my pickup.

I didn’t answer. It wouldn’t do any good to get into a shouting match
with the idiot. He wasn’t going to admit he was wrong. And I wasn’t
going to pay for his mistake.

The chamber was rising and I was still standing as Tom was watching for
problems. “How was the ride?”

“Piece of cake. Second time I have left that thing without feeling I was
fighting with a cat.” I headed for my pants.

“The other time?” Ricky was curious.

“The first time everything felt all squiggly but it wasn’t really that
bad either in retrospect.” I was putting on my shirt.

“Another ride in forty eight hours then?” He had shut it all down.

“What is the plan? You going to vaporize me now that I have proven your
little project?” It was a sick joke.

Ricky knew I was pulling his leg. “But of course. Can’t leave any
witnesses and what better way than turn you into water vapor? No body,
no crime.”

“I’ve sent notes to those people who were following you. Remember them?
My letters are to be opened if they don’t hear from me every forty eight
hours. I squealed, but my silence can be bought. Keep in mind, I’m not
cheap.” I threw back my head and tried my villain laugh. It was wasted.
I sounded like a sick frog instead.

Ricky shook his head. “Tom you are one sick puppy and have an even worse
sick sense of humor. Mapping claims all the cancer is gone. No dark
spots showing up anywhere. As of this moment you are probably the
healthiest person on this screwed up planet. How you feel?”

“Actually, I feel like I’m the healthiest person on this screwed up
planet. So when do you take your turn inside that machine of yours and
map your own body?” I wanted Ricky to know what kind of ride I had been
experiencing. It seemed a shame the person who built the thing had not
experienced his own handiwork.

Ricky shook his head. “And I’m supposed to trust you to run the
controls? I think not. Not that I’m afraid to put my life in your hands,
but it isn’t that easy. Eventually I’ll have it artificial intelligently
controlled where I can step inside but that is down the road. And it
isn’t just for myself I need to make it self aware. IF…, if I ever let
this technology out then it must be self controlling. It would take ten
years or more of constant training to teach someone how to handle this
machine with a human operator.”

That last sentence got my attention. “You mean one little bobble and I
would be Tom No More? You can’t tell me you had this thing running for
the past ten years?”

“I built it. My training is more than standing here controlling
currents, eddy streams, harmonics, and gauss fields. I know exactly what
each one of those hundreds of different energy beams and fields do, what
strength and where they should be focused. Building something and
operating it after someone else built it are two different fields. A
design builder can be, and usually is, the first operator. A trained
operator is not, and never will be, a design builder.” He smiled and
patted the console as it was his pet.

I imagine it was just that. His pet.

==============================================================

“SO NOT FUNNY!” Ricky was lucky he wasn’t within reach or I would have
smacked him. He had a lopsided grin as he stared. I didn’t think he
could have wiped the smirk off his face even if I had a gun in my hands
and promised to shoot him.

“Says who? You remind yourself of anyone?” He pointed toward the
mirrored dressing booth on the other side of the room.

“SAYS ME, YOU DUMB SHIT! YOU JUST HAD TO GO AND DO IT TO ME TO PROVE YOU
COULD! DIDN’T YOU!” I didn’t need the mirrors to know Ricky had changed
my sex from a man into a woman. Those big melons I was sporting on my
chest were damn big.

“CHANGE ME BACK!” What Ricky had done might have been funny to him but
personally…, I wasn’t amused.

“Chill Jessica. You know I can’t until the time limit has lapsed. Too
soon and I’ll be scooping a bloody mess up into a bucket. Now go look in
the mirrors. It was a hell of a job. I bet you will think it was funny
when you see what you look like.” He was turning off the power and
shutting down the hologram stabilizers.

Why I let Ricky talk me into being his date for Halloween I blamed on
that damn machine of his manipulating my mind.

“The ladies at the salon will do a make over before the party tonight. I
have reservations for the two of us at the Del Rio Palacia . Usually for
the well connected, so security will be tight. The military will be all
over that place like fleas on a dog. No matter how big the drug cartel
they don’t send their men on suicide missions.

“Salon? How far is this joke going.” Even if it wasn’t my body I was
still the one inside it.

“Forty eight hours is all.” He was urging me toward the door.

“I am going to get so even you are going to regret the day you were
born.” I stepped through the doors as he held them open for me

Ricky even opened the car door for me.

“I’m not helpless you know.” I clutched my skirt as I slid into the seat
and pulled it in so it wouldn’t get caught in the car door.

“Didn’t say you were. That wasn’t the intention.” He closed the door.

He drove me to the Hotel Capri and walked me inside to a salon with the
name Rita over the door. “Play nice. They know what they are doing. They
have done this most of their lives.” I’ll be back in an hour.

“An hour?” I was ready to panic. Being left alone with strangers in the
condition I was in didn’t make me feel comfortable.

“Relax. You are a girl, they are girls. Your virginity is safe.” He
grinned before he turned and walked out the door.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be here planning your death.” I mumbled as
he disappeared out of the hotel.

One of the ladies took my hand as she studied me. “Speak English?”

“Yes.” I wondered why she asked?

“Good. Remove your gloves and your jewelry.” She pointed to a salon
chair.

It wasn’t that impossible to remove my gloves. The jewelry was a
different situation. I moved my hair off to the side. “Would you help
please.”

Ricky was back. He was wearing a nineteen twenties suit, hat, and spats
on his shoes in a twenties costume. He nodded as he stared. “You are
absolutely stunning.”

The girls had glossed my lips with the brightest red I had ever seen in
my life. They highlighted my cheekbones and painted my nails. They
placed a tiara on my head and wove some of my hair through it making it
non removable for the time being. My eyes only needed the eye shadow
treatment. Ricky gave me long, thick lashes and eyeliner in that machine
of his. He said black was a natural pigment of the body but he couldn’t
do blue.

“You better be enjoying this little joke of yours because it isn’t going
to last.” I held out my left wrist. “This your jewelry? The girls
removed it when they worked me over and put it back. I’m no expert. I
have no idea if it is the same stuff or not.”

A small crowd had gathered at the entrance of the salon. I didn’t have
to guess why they were staring. “This isn’t me, this isn’t me. I can do
this.”

Ricky snickered. “You have the best costume of anyone. They all know
it.” He checked his watch. “A little early to go to the party. Shall we
go to the dinning room and order a snack? It is going to be a long
night. Alcohol on an empty stomach isn’t what I recommend for tonight.
Your molecular structure is still settling down. I’m not sure what
effect alcohol will have on you at this stage of recovery.”

Shaking my head I could not believe he had done this to me without us
testing a body change with alcohol before now? “Anything else you want
to tell me before tonight? What happens if I pass out in this condition
and you can’t get me home?”

“Not to worry about getting you home. I’m not dressed in the roaring
twenties just for fun. Those guys always carried a heater in their
jacket.” He was behind me steering me though the crowd as they
reluctantly parted before us.

Most of what they were saying I was glad I didn’t understand. The two
guys speaking in English I did understand. “She’s real.” “Those aren’t
fake.” Can they make them like that?” “Wonder where she got hers?” “I’m
gonna buy my girlfriend ones like that.” “Any idea how much they cost?”

I couldn’t take it any longer even if it wasn’t me in this Jessica
costume. I turned around to look at the two motor mouths. “Children,
shouldn’t you be in school?”

At first, they both looked shocked. Instantly their faces got big happy
grins as they smiled from ear to ear. It took me a second to understand
why. The idea someone who looked like me would even acknowledge they
existed made their day. Sheesh, if I was going to keep this body I would
need a crash course in girl speak and act. It was something girls take a
lifetime learning from day one. Come on forty…? I looked at my watch.
Forty one hours.

The dinning room already had a crowd. A few patrons were in costume. The
maitre d’ was steering incoming traffic to the bar to wait for a table.
His eyes focused in on me. No doubt he undressed me in his mind as we
approached. I didn’t figure it took too much brain power to undress me.
I was already three quarters of the way there in this number I was
almost wearing.

“Two.” Ricky slipped his hand around my waist.

I wasn’t ready for that and almost bolted for the exit. “uhhh”

He felt me shiver and realized what he had done. It didn’t make him
change his mind or remove his hand. Just out of shear meanness he
dropped his hand a little lower to the top of my hip and pulled me in
closer.

“ssssss” Air escaped my lungs in a rush of emotions. I shivered even
more.

The maitre d’ looked like he was going to have an orgasm on the spot.
Obviously he thought I was putting on a shimmy show for him. If Ricky
hadn’t already staked out a prior claim with his hand on me, the maitre
d’ probably would have jumped me right then and there.

Ricky palmed the man a hundred dollars.

“Certainly sir, I have a table. If you will follow me.” He unsnapped the
chain separating us from the dinning room.

He led us to a table not in the back by the kitchen as I expected but
right up front by the stage. Was it to show off the catch of the night?
Everyone would be looking at us or past us if there was any action on
the stage.

Ricky received my evil eye stare after we were seated. “You do that
again and I won’t wait. I will murder you on the spot and claim it was
self defense.”

He chuckled as he gave me a wink. “Do what Jessica? I swear you are
getting weird on me. Anyway what shall we order? Hummm? Oysters on the
half shell are good for love making.”

“Ricky…, You better be teasing or you are really going to end up in the
drainage ditch someplace. Now behave yourself. You’re acting like a damn
guy.”

“And you are acting like a real woman.” Drifted quietly back across the
table.

“Say what! I…, okay, drop it. Be a gentleman and order me a chef salad…,
oh poop, did I just say that…, I am aren’t I.”

A waiter came up. Taking our order wasn’t on his mind as he stared down
my breasts. Hell, if I had been me I would have been doing the same
thing. It’s a guy thing, okay. Men can’t look a woman in the eyes if she
has big boobs. I not only had gargantuan ones, thanks to Ricky, I was
obscenely dressed to expose most of what I had. Good thing it was only a
costume and not really me!

Ricky laid his menu on the table. “The lady wishes a Chef Salad. I’ll
have the Ostriche, Insalata di barbabietoea e formaggio. The lady wishes
a la Paloma and I will have a White Spider.”

“Very good sir.” The water picked up the menus and left.

“What did you just order for me? Are you going to try and get me drunk?”
I was starting to suspect my best friend had forgot I wasn’t really
Jessica. “You do remember who is inside this costume don’t you?”

A wicked smile spread across his face. “I must say it’s a great costume
even if I did help design it.”

“In your dreams. And things better stay that way. In your dreams. Park
your testosterone drive and go take a cold shower because we are not
trying out the equipment.” The waiter set our drinks on the table. I
took a big swallow to steady my nerves. My drink was a fruit cocktail. I
partially forgave Ricky after thinking he was trying to ambush me.

My suspicions returned just as quickly as they had left when our food
arrived. Some of Ricky’s entrée was oyster on the half shell. I had two
more cocktails before we finished our meals. Fruit juice wasn’t going to
steady my nerves but I was beginning to feel mischievous myself.

After the meal Ricky asked if I would mind walking the three blocks to
the Halloween party?

Of course it was to show off his handiwork. Which was me. I knew why he
wanted to walk. Hell, after that dinner, I wanted to show off myself.
Walking in five inch heels wasn’t the problem I thought it could be. My
feet were designed especially for walking in five inch heels. Besides,
the car was already parked. Finding another parking space any closer
could be a problem.

As we rose from the table, Ricky walked around to my side and collected
me putting his arm around my waist. If he expected a response he got one
but it wasn’t the one he was expecting.

I moved in closer brushing my right hip up against him. I felt peaceful
and protected when he put his arm around me. I liked it. “Thank you for
the dinner. It was very kind of you.”

“You’re most certainly welcome. Thank you for coming with me tonight. It
was most gracious of you.” He returned the compliment as he steered me
for the exit. He let his left hand slid down to my left hip.

My hand automatically found the back of his. I pushed his hand a little
lower where it was on the slit of that silk dress I was almost in. I
held his hand on my hip as we walked knowing he could feel the fluid
motion of my hips with each step. Jessica had come out to play. And took
over!

As Ricky and I walked to the party I noticed there were more people in
costumes than normal dressed people. “I don’t recognize four fifths of
those costumes.”

“Mexico has a little different perspective on Halloween than Americans
do.” He moved me around in front of himself to thread us through a group
of soldiers and policia.

“Lots of hardware out tonight. Why?” I was trying to not stare at the
soldiers. I didn’t want them to stop us and question us for citizenship
papers or identifications. I certainly didn’t have any. I wasn’t too
sure Ricky had a legal right to be in Mexico either. We had been here
almost five months since first flying in.

“Two kinds of police and military in Mexico. Those who work for the drug
cartels and those who don’t. Tonight's a show of force to keep peace
between the two. This many from both sides and it would be a blood bath
neither side wants. Both sides want the tourists to enjoy the festivals
and come back again with more money. Tonight is one of the few nights we
don’t need to worry about the policia or the drug cartels.” We had made
it past the soldiers. Ricky pulled me back in beside him again.

It didn’t bother me. I preferred Ricky holding me close to stake out his
claim I was already spoken for. I did the same thing myself when I took
a date anywhere there was a crowd. It was a universal language. She’s
mine. You can look, but you can’t touch.

Ricky produced two tickets for the Halloween party when the guys at the
entrance looked like they might stop us. I gave Ricky the glassy eyed
stare. “You really had this all planed out didn’t you?”

He nodded in agreement. “It was a loose concept. If it happened it
happened and if it didn’t, it didn’t. Do you really mind that I tricked
you? After all it is the night for tricks. You look like you’re having
fun.”

“Well…, yeah, kinda. If you had asked I would have turned you down but
what the hell.” I held my arms out to show off. “Here I am. Cinderella
will turn back into a maid, the horses into mice, and the royal coach
back into a pumpkin. Although in this case not exactly at midnight. Next
year you can ask me to do it again and we will both laugh before I punch
you in the nose and tell you not again in this lifetime.”

Looking me over from head to toe he pulled me to the side. “Jessica, be
really careful. If I had known how much attention you were going to
attract I wouldn’t have made your assets as…,”

“Big. Go on say it. You went in for overkill. My breasts, my hips, my
butt are more than ample. Well, it was overkill and that is the word for
what you did. That’s before we even begin to discuss my next to nothing
waist. Enjoy it because all I am will soon be a memory and nothing more.
What pisses me off more than anything, isn’t you did this to me. I’m
getting used to it now. It is funny because I’m obviously your wet dream
and you can’t have me. Who has their hand on the controls now big boy?”
I licked my lips and brought my left hand up to cradle my left breast
for added emphasis. I was determined now to make Ricky regret he had
turned me into Jessica. I was going to be all over him like black on
ink. And he would never get to taste the forbidden fruit.

Ricky shook his head. “Jessica, behave. I’m not the only one who has
their eyes on you. You probably put every male in here in rut the moment
you walked in the door. Your little antics are sure to set the pot a
boiling.”

“You accuse me of being a flirt and a tease? Why dear me, how is that
possible? You know little ol me wouldn’t do anything like that.” I slid
my hands down my hips as I batted my eyelashes at Ricky.

“I’m going to go get a drink.” Ricky had enough.

“While you’re at it bring me back another one of them fruit drinks. I
gotta go pee.

Ricky stopped and turned his head to study me. “Fruit drinks? You mean
like you were drinking earlier?”

“Yeah, that’s the one. Like I was drinking earlier.” I was scanning for
the bathrooms.

“Okay. Jessica, remember you’re a woman not a guy. You use the ladies
room okay?” He waited to see if what he said about the restroom had sunk
in.

“Yeah, yeah…, girl, I got it. Think I’ll stand in front of the pot and
pee just for fun.” I still hadn’t seen any doors or signs leading to the
bathrooms.

Ricky pointed to the back of the room. “That way. Go down the hallway
and take a left. Left is ladies. Take a left.”

“Ah shucks, you been here before ain’t yuh? I’m not the first date you
brought to this place. Who was she? Anyone I know. She prettier than
me?” I was headed the direction Ricky had pointed. Those fruit drinks I
had at dinner needed a release.

Ricky waited until Jessica made the hallway and then followed. “She is
drunk. I wonder if she will remember any of this tomorrow?” He was going
to make sure she didn’t get lost or molested. He was feeling some regret
bringing her to the Halloween party. At first it seemed like a fun idea
but now…?

==============================================================

Marcella pushed Emilio away as he tried to kiss her. “Why don’t you give
me diamonds like that American does his mistress?”

“What are you talking about? What American and mistress?” Emilio made
another pass without getting a kiss.

“That Americano everyone talks about. They say he makes drugs in that
lab of his. If you had his drugs you could sell them for lots of money.
You would be rich too. You could buy me diamonds like he buys his
mistress.” Looking at the silver bracelet on her wrist, Marcella
imagined a diamond bracelet like the one she handled in Rita’s Salon an
hour earlier.

“The mistress is Jessica. She had a big diamond bracelet. And diamond
watch. And she had a big diamond necklace too. And she had long diamond
earrings. If you had the Americano’s secret drugs you would no longer be
a soldier in Ignacio’s cartel. I bet he would make you his top
lieutenant.” Marcella wrapped her hands around Emilio’s head and pulled
him in for a kiss to drive her point home.

Emilio didn’t need much help. He had been thinking of breaking into the
Americano’s lab and stealing all the drugs and secrets. He wanted those
designer drugs. He knew if he didn’t do it, one of the other drug
cartels would. It had become an open secret the Americanos were making
drugs in that lab they spent so much time in. Even some of the doctors
were saying the Americanos had made a drug to cure cancer when one of
them had become deathly sick.

He pushed Marcella back. He had a plan. He had friends who would help.
It had to be tonight before anyone else broke into the lab and made off
with all the secrets. Starting up his car he pulled out into the street
to go find the men he wanted helping him.

=============================================================

Ricky waited as Jessica came back out of the bathrooms. No earth
shattering screams had come from that direction while she was in there.
Obviously Jessica had behaved herself in the ladies room. Even if she
hadn’t the other women had taken everything in stride. And why shouldn’t
they? Jessica was a woman in virtually every single respect.

“You waited on me? You are a gentleman.” I closed in on Ricky. He put
his arm around my waist.

“Jess would you dance with me?” Ricky steered me toward the crowded
dance floor.

“I don’t…, well yes I do. I’m a girl. Girls come preloaded with dance
instructions don’t they. All girls can dance. Never met one that
couldn’t. I’m a girl. I can dance.” I pulled his hand up under my
breast.

Ricky’s eyes briefly closed to slits. I knew I was driving him to
distraction. Hell, I was a guy. I knew what feeling a woman’s body did
to a guy’s hormones. Or was I a girl. Hell no I wasn’t no damn girl! I
was a woman. I had a woman’s desire to be bedded! I rubbed my hip up
against Ricky. Take me. I’m hot.

He was having a hard time trying to figure her out. Had Jessica taken
over Tom’s mind as well as his body, or was it the alcohol causing her
to lose all inhibitions? Maybe it was Tom and payback for changing him
into a woman? Ricky decided it had to be Tom and payback. The machine
didn’t change the mind only the physical things. He wrapped her up in
his arms for the dance. Two could play this game. He would make Tom
sorry he had started it.

The only thing separating Ricky’s and my body was a little cloth. I
wasn’t going to let a little thing like that get in the way as I put my
hip up against his crouch as we danced across the floor. My mind was
demanding satisfaction for my body’s desires.

Ricky knew Tom was pushing the envelope to get even for changing him
into a beautiful, sensuous woman. Payback works both ways. He pulled
Jessica in tight and crushed her breasts against his chest.

“oooooh,” The moan was involuntary. My emotions went into overdrive and
achieved lift off.

“take me, I’m yours.” I whispered in his right ear.

The lights slowly came on in Ricky’s mind as Jessica leaned into him
pushing back even harder. She wasn’t faking it. Something had gone
wrong. Tom had lost control. Ricky was no longer looking at Tom in
Jessica’s body. He was looking at Jessica in Jessica’s body. Could have
been the alcohol? Whatever it was he needed to get Jessica back to the
lab before she lost it all and told the whole damn world who she was.

“Let’s go back to the lab. I’m tired of this party.” Ricky tried to push
Jessica away to give them both some breathing room.

She wasn’t having any of it as she pulled his hand away from her waist
and slid it down her hip. “Can’t we stay. I’m having fun. Do you love
me?”

“Jess…?” Ricky was caught off guard.

“If you don’t love me I bet I can find some real men in here who will.”
Jessica was scanning the room for a mate if Ricky didn’t love her.

“Yes, I love you Jess. Let’s go back to the lab okay?” Ricky was edging
her for the door before she lost all control.

“Oh, then you are going to make love to me and make me a real woman.”
Jessica was happy Ricky loved her.

“Yes, I love you and I will make you a real woman.” Ricky was wishing
the car wasn’t parked three blocks down the street. He wasn’t sure he
could control her for that long.

“I love you.” Jessica wrapped her arms around Ricky’s neck and pulled
him in for a long passionate kiss.

It shocked the devil out of him when she first pulled him in. And then
the kiss! His eyes grew as big as saucers as he watched her face. He
didn’t know if he should respond or not? She had her eyes closed in the
passion of the moment. He tried to return the kiss as best as he could
as he wrapped his arms around her tiny little waist. It wasn’t as hard
to kiss her as he thought it might be. She was, after all, all woman.

Jessica was all over him as he walked her the three blocks to the car.

=============================================================

Fireworks and rockets were going off around town. “Break it down.”
Emilio was waiting for Javier and Ramirez to bust the door to the lab of
the Americanos.

“What if one of them is still there? Marcella only saw one gringo with
his mistress. The other one could still be in the lab." Javier didn’t
mind killing. He didn’t want to be the one killed.

“Blow it then. He will stunned. We kill him, take the drugs and notes.
Ignacio will reward us all.” Emilio handed his two friends four sticks
of dynamite.

Ramirez stacked all four at the base of the door. He lit the two foot
fuse and ran to hide behind the van the other two had already taken
refuge behind.

The explosion rocked the neighborhood. The door was crumpled in. Emilio
was passing out more dynamite as he looked at the second door past the
first one that had folded. “Hurry. There will be an investigation as to
why so much noise.”

The second door was dispatched by another batch of dynamite. The lab was
smoldering. Electrical circuits were twisted and stripped of their
insulation. Small fires broke out throughout the lab as Emilio and his
accomplices searched for drugs or notes on how to make those drugs.
There was a problem as this lab didn’t have any of the equipment
normally used in the manufacture of designer drugs. There were no
beakers, no test tubes, no hoses, no condensers, no burners…, nothing in
the way of a drug making lab.

The fires were spreading and growing. “Let’s get out of here.” Javier
was headed for the door.

“You want to tell me what you are doing without my permission.” Ignacio
was standing in the doorway with two other men.

“We were looking for the Americanos drug making equipment. Marcella said
they were making drugs. We did it for you Padrone.” Emilio was trying to
explain to his boss why they had destroyed a building before asking
permission.

The fires and heat drove them all outside the lab. Ignacio was furious
one of his own men would go off on a tangent and do something like this
without asking him first. “Did you find the drugs you were looking for?”

Ignacio pulled a pistol from his belt. Emilio knew he was about to die.
Ignacio fired several shots into the lab. “That should have been you.”

Ricky stopped the car a few hundred feet from the lab as smoke and
flames poured from the doorway. There were six men standing at the
entrance.

“NOOOOOO!” He opened the door and ran toward the lab.

Ignacio turned toward the shouting and pulled the trigger again.

I was getting out of the car. Ricky spun around and hit the ground as
the gunshot rang out.

The adrenalin rush of watching my friend get shot cleared the fog out of
my brain in less than three seconds. Turning back to the car I was
reaching under the seat.

“SHE’S RUNNING. MAKE SURE SHE DOESN’T GET AWAY.” Ignacio pointed in the
direction of the woman trying to make an escape back into the car.

Emilio and his two friends were going to make sure the woman didn’t get
away. They would prove to Padrone they were valuable assets. They
started to sprint toward the car and the fleeing woman.

I came up holding the Desert Eagle in both hands. I reached forward over
the door hinge between the car body and the door. “YOU SON OF A BITCH!”

It was too late for the three men running at me to correct their error.
They split and dove for cover I nailed the middle one in the forehead.
His forward momentum stopped like he had hit a brick wall as his body
bent over backwards. The kick of that big ol fifty caliber was a lot
more than I remembered. It took a lot longer to re-acquire a new target
than what it should have. I took aim on the one running to the right.
The shot hit him in his right shoulder blade area. He went flying like a
truck had hit him.

The third one was firing back as he ran toward the first group for
protection. I took aim and hit him in the left shoulder blade. If he had
a heart it was no longer there. His body spun in a circle as he went
down. He skidded about eight feet as he plowed pavement face down.

The first group had got their wits together. They were peppering the car
with lead. They were squeezing off snapshots. Unless they were extremely
lucky they were never going to hit anything.

One, two, three and they were down in that order. Their vehicles now had
my attention. Tinted windows and I couldn’t see a darn thing inside
them. I slipped another clip into the fifty and shot holes in the doors
where someone could have been sitting in the seats. Nothing moved. That
didn’t mean someone couldn’t be lying down on the floor waiting.

“Ricky?” I took a glance in his direction.

“ooooooh” Was the soft reply.

Walking around to the driver’s side I started the car up and pulled up
beside Ricky. “Ricky, can you stand? I have to get you into the car. I
can’t do it by myself. I need you to help me. Ricky?”

I knelt down beside him and checked. He had blood coming out of his
side. “Ricky, please, I can’t do this without your help. Ricky, I don’t
have the strength to do this alone. You gotta help me get you in the
car. Ricky we can’t stay here. The lab is burning. I killed six men.
Ricky we can’t stay here.”

“Help me.” Ricky coughed. He was pushing himself up as I helped lift.

I got him in the car. He collapsed in the seat. I prayed that doctor
Ricky had taken me to wasn’t out celebrating with the rest of the crowd.
I found the little clinic and pulled up to the back entrance. The doc
was there.

“Patch him up doc. We were never here.” I took Ricky’s billfold and dug
out a thousand dollars.

“He needs medical attention. More than a few minutes worth.” The doc was
eying the thousand dollars.

“Not tonight doc. Pour enough antibiotics into him to make sure he
doesn’t get an infection. Make sure all of that damn bullet passed
though and didn’t leave any fragments behind. Wrap him in enough
bandages to make sure he doesn’t keep bleeding. We were never here.” I
kept checking the hallway to make sure no military or policia walked in
on us.

Thirty minutes later I had Ricky back in the car. He was a little more
lucid. “Where we going?”

“I have no idea. We are going to run. We have a full night ahead of us.
Car is full of gas. I will pick up some supplies at a grocery. Then we
head inland and north I guess. Ricky, the lab is gone.” I was pulling
out making sure I didn’t do anything to attract any more attention than
a bullet riddled car normally would. At least it was night and those
bullet holes weren’t noticeable unless one was looking.

“Go to the plane.” He nodded toward his left.

“Ricky I can’t fly. You don’t look like you are going to be in any
condition to fly either. Those pain killers are going to wear off in a
little bit. Hell is fixing to come and rest inside your body and your
mind. More pain killers and you won’t be in any condition to fly either.
There isn’t an upside to any of this.” For whatever reason I turned the
car toward the dirt field where he had parked that airplane.

“Trust me again. You trusted me with your life before. Trust me again.”
He closed his eyes as the ride was hurting him.

“Trust you! Have you taken a good look at me lately? Trust you? I’m a
damn girl. The lab is burned to the ground and I’m still a damn girl.
Trust you? Unless you have some black magic tricks I don’t know about,
you used up all that ‘trust me business’. Trust you…? Damn you all to
hell Ricky, I’m stuck as a girl. The only thing stopping me from blowing
my damn brains out right now is I’m hoping I will wake up when you turn
off the machine and this is one of those damn dreams.”

“Jessica…,”

“Okay, I put up with that Jessica shit about as long as I can stand. I’m
Tom. When you start calling me Tom this dream will end. I will step out
of that machine and I will cheerfully strangle you to death with my own
two little hands.”

Ricky snorted before I glanced in his direction. “Tom? That sure ain’t
gonna fit is it? Tell you what Jessica. Until you step out of the
machine and throttle me to death you’re right. You’re stuck as Jessica.
While you’re still dreaming all this trust me. Okay?”

For the first time I saw the humor in this situation. “Okay. Get ready
because when you turn that machine off I’m going to kill you.”

Nineteen minutes later I was parked beside the hanger. Ricky was feeling
the pain. I wasn’t sure what to do next?

He looked over at the side door. “Keypad, use JESSICA for access. Flip
the two black switches off when you are inside. That will close down the
electrical field on the walls. Big red switch by the overhead doors
raises the hanger door.”

A pained look crossed his face. He took a shallow breath. “Come get me.
You can’t roll that plane out by yourself. I can’t help pull but I can
start it up and move it out. Put the car in. Lock everything back up.
They will be here looking for us shortly. I don’t want to make it too
easy. Give a few of them a nasty shock before they figure out to kill
the power to the building.”

Six minutes latter I had the rifles and grenades I liberated from the
CIA agents loaded into the baggage compartment. Two minutes after that I
had Ricky standing by the landing steps. “Ricky, I can’t carry you up
into that plane. You have to do this yourself.”

“Let me lean on you. You push the best you can.” He put his right arm
around my shoulders and made the first step as I pushed. The second step
was harder. The third step was more painful. He made the forth step and
I figured we were finished. Ricky would never make that fifth step.
Whoever was coming was going to find Ricky sprawled out on the steps.

I was thinking about getting the rifles out of the cargo hold. I was in
the worse defensive position I had ever been in my military career.
However, the AR 15 would make anyone coming at us pay a dear price
before we were taken out ourselves.

Ricky took a lunge forward and lay on the cabin floor. “jessica?”

I rushed up the steps and took his left hand. “I’m here Ricky.”

“Give me a minute. Get me into that pilot’s seat.” He was breathing hard
with his eyes closed. His side was bleeding.

I retrieved that AR from the cargo hold while he rested. We were wasting
time.

“I’m ready. Get me into the cockpit.” Ricky held up his hand.

With him pushing and me pulling he was back on his feet. He had his arms
wrapped around my neck as I supported him and walked backwards into the
cockpit. He fell more than sat in the pilot’s seat.

“Pull the chocks from the wheels. I’ll fire this bird up and drive it
out. You pull the car in and lock up.”

“Got it.” I was headed for the exit.

The right turbine started spooling up as I pulled the second set of
wheel chocks. I tossed them over against the wall as I headed for the
car. A minute later the left turbine started spooling up and lit. The
aircraft rolled out of the hanger and stopped. Four minutes after that
the hanger was closed up, electrified, and I was in the cockpit.

Ricky had his eyes closed. He was slumped over the control wheel.

“ricky? I can’t do this without you.” I felt for a pulse in his neck to
see if he was still alive.

He straightened up and blinked a couple times. “jessica, you can do this
by yourself. Trust me. I programmed the flight into the navigation
system. Take the plane to the end of the runway. Easy on the throttles.
A lot of turbine thrust in your hands. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

My heels had to go. I pulled them off and worked the rudder pedals with
the pads of my feet. Okay that wasn’t bad. I pushed on the top of them
like I had seen Ricky and other pilots do. I wasn’t rolling so I didn’t
know if I had brakes or not. It was time to go. I inched the throttles
forward and the plane leapt forward. I pushed on the brakes with all my
might as I yanked the throttles back. The plane nosed down and squatted
like a frog on a lily pad.

“Easy jessica.” Drifted across from Ricky who still had his eyes closed.

I tried again. With the slightest touch I moved the throttles. The plane
rolled forward and was picking up speed quickly. I started riding the
brakes. The plane slowed. I was on the runway and needed to turn. I
pushed hard with my right foot. The plane whipped around pointed back to
the hanger. I yanked the throttles back. The landing lights had swept
the horizon and sky like spotlights. If anyone didn’t know where we were
at before, they sure would now.

“SHIT!”

“You’re doing good. Now point it down the runway. One throttle when you
want to turn.” Ricky managed an almost smile.

I took a deep breath and slightly moved the left throttle. The turbine
increased its whine and the plane was rolling forward. Gingerly I pushed
right pedal. The plane started turning. Instinctively I turned the
control wheel like a steering wheel. I wobbled all over the runway to
the other end. Finally I was there and had the plane turned again. It
was then I noticed a couple dozen headlights coming down the road toward
the hanger.

“Ricky, company is coming.” I had no idea what to do. I needed Ricky to
fly us off.

“Okay, turn loose of everything. The naviaid is going to take over from
here. He reached down with his right hand to the center console and
flipped four switches.

The throttles slid full forward. The turbines roared to life. I was
shoved back into the seat as the plane leapt forward. Five seconds later
we were airborne. I felt the bump as the wheels retracted home. The
throttles moved slightly back. The turbines lost some of their roar. The
landing lights switched off. The little plane leveled off at two
thousand feet and the throttles slid back to about midway. The turbines
quieted down to a whisper.

I leaned over to check on Ricky. “Damn! What did I need you for? I
should have left you there to slow them down. You are dead weight.”

Looking out the window the car lights were receding in the distance.
There were little lights twinkling around most of the vehicles. It was
the flash flare from their guns shooting at us. I wanted to laugh. We
were already out of range even if there had been someone in the group
who knew how to shoot a moving target.

“Where we going.” I was curious if we were headed to Brazil or Chile
or...?

“Ft. Worth. I need back into the lab.”

“Ricky, we can’t just fly back into the states. You're going to change
me back? I thought you said that was a dummy lab for the government guys
to keep an eye on. In case that bullet messed up your mind, there is
customs and border patrol. I sure as hell can’t explain me.” I was
positive Ricky was delirious.

“We never left that little airport we parked at in south Texas. Trust
me.” He programmed some data into a screen on the panel.

“Ricky, I need to look at that wound. You opened it up again when you
climbed into the plane. I need you in back or over in this seat so I can
dress that wound.” I stood up and moved back out of the way.

“Your seat. The naviaid is almost perfect as a pilot. It needs a little
help from time to time if something comes up it doesn’t understand.” He
was pushing himself up out of his seat.

I helped him move over to the co-pilot seat before I removed his
bandages and repacked the wound. I had the blood stopped for now. If
Ricky would stop moving it wouldn’t bleed again.

The twin made a course correction. I sit down in the pilot’s seat Ricky
had vacated. “How does it know where to go and how to get there?”

Ricky took a shallow breath. “Got any of those pain pills handy?
Multiple systems are feeding data into the computer. Satnav is the same
as the GPS in your truck. More accurate. Ground mapping is watching the
terrain below to make sure we are on course. Loran is triangulating the
homing beacons from five or more navigational signals from airports…,

He sucked in his breath. “Radar is checking for planes, mountains,
towers, ahead, to the side, above, and below us. If the target is moving
it tells the naviaid the flight path and how fast the target is moving.
The naviaid adjusts our flight path and height accordingly to keep a
clear distance from the target.”

The doc gave me a bag full of pills at the clinic. I found a couple for
Ricky along with a bottle of warm water from the cooler inside the
plane. I hadn’t stopped for ice and refreshments when we left the docs
office. If I had stopped we both would be dead or enjoying having our
fingers and toes sliced off one at a time. Those cars were way too close
when we left the airport. One minute later and we wouldn’t have left.

Ricky downed a couple pills. “I’m going to rest for a little while.
Don’t touch anything. There will be lights blinking at you or little
beeps every now and then. They are only a heads up warning. The system
will auto correct itself. If it really wants our attention you will know
it and so will I.”

What a hell of a mess I had got into! Now we were flying back into the
Lion’s Den and I was no longer me. I wasn’t even a US citizen. I was
nobody. Well not quite. I was every male’s dream even if I wasn’t really
Jessica. Try and explain that one to the CIA when they got their clammy
little hands on me. “damn”

I think Ricky was sleeping for most of the two hours we had been in the
air when an eeep, eeep started screeching from the plane. “Ricky, what
do I do?”

“Nothing.” He reached over to the console, pushed a button, and the
screeching stopped. Slipping on a set of headphones he adjusted his
voice mike and played with the keys and knobs on the radio. “Negras
tower, this is N74682, altitude two thousand, on a northbound approach.
We are ten miles out. Airspeed three seventy requesting permission to
land and check some equipment.”

I slipped on the headphones to listen as the tower replied. “N745682
permission granted. You are cleared for a straight in approach. Runway
18. Winds are two to three from the north west. You have a Cessna one
seven two fifteen miles to your west approaching the pattern. Altitude
one thousand six hundred.”

Ricky pushed some buttons on the console. “Roger Negras tower.
Understand we are cleared for a straight in approach on runway 18. We
are painting the Cessna one seven two on our radar and confirm we have a
visual.”

“Jess, don’t touch anything. The plane will land itself. I need you to
taxi us off the runway after it is down. Hand me the computer on the
left side of your seat please.”

I found the laptop and handed it to Ricky. He opened it up and started
playing with the keyboard. My curiosity was killing me. “Now what?”

“Wireless at this airport. I’m looking for a plane that's already
cleared customs and is flying into the states.”

I felt a bump as the landing doors opened up and the landing gear came
down. The throttles eased back. The whine from the turbines got even
quieter. More levers moved and the flaps started dropping as landing
lights came on. I was looking at a runway straight ahead of us. The
plane was actually going to land itself without Ricky’s help.

As the wheels greased the runway two more levers moved. It felt like we
had hit a brick wall. I was ready to panic. Ricky slightly shook his
head. “Reverse thrust. The plane is slowing down without wearing out the
brakes.”

In less than two minutes we had touched down and came to a stop in the
middle of the runway. “Jess, your turn. Taxi down to the first off ramp
you come to. Pull onto the taxi ramp and go back to the end of the
runway. We aren’t staying for breakfast. Put your right hand down beside
your seat. You will feel a tee handle. Pull up. It locks your nose wheel
to your control wheel. You can steer where you want to go without riding
the brakes and rudder so much.”

I did as he told me before I touched the throttles. I slightly wiggled
them forward. We started rolling.

“N745682 bring your plane to the tower.” Came over the radio.

Ricky tapped a key on his computer and static hissed into my headphones.
“Say again tower, you are breaking up. Jess, don’t stop. Go straight to
the other end of the runway.”

Guiding the plane was a thousand times easier with the nose wheel
steering us like a tricycle. I made sure we didn’t go too fast as I kept
it on the taxiway headed back to the end of the runway.

“N745&$% you are $@%^^# tower.” Came across the headphones

“Tow^$%#@&* brea#@$#$ up.” Ricky responded

A yellow truck with yellow, blue, red lights flashing started up at the
tower.

“Jess get us lined up on the runway now.”

I was watching lights approaching from the air. “Ricky there is a plane
coming in.”

“We will be gone by the time he gets here if you will get us on that
runway. Otherwise we will be here for a long long really long time. That
welcome wagon coming from the tower isn’t bringing welcoming gifts.”

I moved out to the runway and lined it up knowing that airplane
approaching was going to land on top of us.

“Jess, reach down and push that T handle down to unlock the nose wheel.”

I did as Ricky asked while waiting for the crunch of a plane landing on
us. I wasn’t counting that truck racing down the taxiway toward us with
all the lights flashing. Our headsets were crackling and all I heard was
garbled words mixed in with static.

“Hands and feet off everything.” Ricky reached down to the center
console.

The throttles slipped forward and the turbines roared to life. I was
pushed back into the seat. The driver of the truck realized we weren’t
going to wait on him. He turned across the grass to put his truck on the
runway ahead of us and block our takeoff.

I was looking at a driver in a truck who knew he had signed the death
warrant for himself, along with those in the plane. His eyes were big as
dinner plates. I honestly thought I could reach out and touch him. I
felt a whump as the pickup and driver disappeared under the nose of the
plane. I knew we had crashed. I waited for the smack down back into the
runway which was to be our death. The lights of the runway were fast
disappearing below and behind us. I didn’t believe it when I felt the
bump of the wheels as they retracted and the throttles eased back.

“The best I could do on short notice was a Cessna one fifty that had
cleared customs, headed to McAllen.” He was busy flipping switches and
dials.

“Did we hit that truck?” I didn’t care about a plane cleared from
customs. I wanted to know if we still had a plane ourselves?

“Wheel did. Didn’t you feel your side rock up? Naviaid took it in stride
and corrected. The cab of that truck is in the truck seat. We will pick
up the Cessna in twenty one minutes and over fly it. We will steal his
transponder signal and become a Cessna one fifty ourselves. We will have
to keep a course to McAllen or the Border Patrol will be all over us.
From there we will become whatever is flying north toward Dallas or Ft.
Worth. Hopefully it won’t be a single engine prop.” Ricky closed up his
laptop and rested.

Watching Ricky rest I felt so damn helpless. I was completely out of my
element and totally useless to him. Some people complain when their
lives get turned around. Holding up my hands and looking at them before
I cupped my breasts; my life wasn’t only turned upside down, it had been
completely turned inside out. Ricky’s machine was destroyed. Unless he
had another hidden away someplace I was stuck as Jessica, every male’s
fantasy girl. Feeling sorry for myself and wishing Ricky had let me die
of cancer wasn’t helping. Wishing Ricky hadn’t wanted Jessica for a
girlfriend for one night wasn’t helping either. Wishing wasn’t changing
the past nor building a future. Provided I didn’t slit my own throat
first, I needed decent clothes.

Running around half dressed in a glitter dress until I shot myself was
not going to happen. The bracelet and watch was the first to go. The
gloves had to go. Working by feel it took me a long time to get the
clasp and safety chain lose on the necklace. The earrings were next. The
tiara was last as I had to work my hair out of it before I could remove
it. Everything went into a pile beside the seat. Ricky could return it
to the rightful owner if he survived.

The plane started beeping. Ricky opened his eyes and took a short look
in my direction. “Sorry Jess. Okay, the Cessna is ahead and below us.
Let’s steal his transponder signal in four three two… We are now a
Cessna one fifty. Better slow down so the guys watching their radar
don’t get suspicious. That Cessna does good to push a hundred and fifty
miles per hour.” Ricky throttled back. The airspeed dropped from three
fifty to one hundred and sixty.

Approximately nineteen minutes later Ricky crossed back into the US and
turned northwest. “Gotchu. Citation close enough to steal their
transponder signal.”

“Citation? What is that?” I was looking for another plane.

“Jet. He is lifting off from McAllen now.” Ricky shoved the throttles
forward. The turbines picked up a deep roar as we started climbing.

“Can we keep up with a jet?” I didn’t believe Ricky would want to try
and ghost along with a jet.

“Long enough to be out of reach of the Border Patrol when we become a
separate plane from them.”

I could see a civilian twin engine jet ahead of us climbing for blue
sky. Ricky was in hot pursuit and closing. Ricky’s turbo prop had more
climb power than the jet. The jet would be faster once it leveled out.
Ricky kept the jet several hundred yards ahead as it kept climbing.

Ricky passed twenty two thousand, pulled the throttles back, and then
went into a dive. “Back on the deck to stay under their radar.”

“Ricky, this is insane. Why are we going back to your lab if nothing
works there? You know they will have bugs all over that place even if
they don’t have live bodies watching it.” I was getting excited as the
ground came rushing up to great us. It looked to me like we were getting
darn close. Too close.

Ricky leveled off at two hundred feet.

Looking over at him I realized he had used up everything he had to get
us this far. He was slumped over the wheel. He looked finished. “Ricky?”

“Give me a minute Jess. Take the controls would you? I don’t have our
route programmed in. Hold this heading. Don’t fly us into any towers.”
He turned lose of the wheel and leaned back.

I put my hands on the wheel and started scanning the horizon like a
birddog on point. How would I know? The sun hadn’t come up yet. It was
still dark. “Ricky???”

“fly the plane jess.” Came softly from the other side of the cockpit.

“Ricky, I can’t do this.” I was scared out of my every loving mind.

“Yes you can”

A quick look told me Ricky was either asleep or passed out. “We are
gonna die”

A beep beep was coming from the panel. I tried to figure out what it was
telling me. It keep beeping. “Bank left.” Was a female voice.

Experience told me the plane was sensitive to the controls. I slightly
turned left. The plane banked and the beeping stopped. I leveled out.
Was I supposed to keep this heading or go back on course? While I was
trying to decide, a tower a lot taller than us went by a half mile to
our right.

“Damn plane is a lot smarter than me. It is going to guide me around
those things if I don’t do it myself. Maybe we aren’t going to die? This
plane doesn’t want to. How smart can they make these things?” My nerves
were starting to calm just a little. If I didn’t have Ricky guiding me
the next best thing was this plane of his.

Thirty minutes later Ricky was stirring as he moaned. The plane had
steered me clear of two more towers. Nothing was a near miss. We had
plenty of distance when the plane told me to bank. “Ricky?”

He opened his eyes. “I got it Jess. Think you can find some more of
those pain pills while I program in our destination?”

“Sure.” I slid out of the seat and went to find the pills and water. Off
to our right the morning was starting to break on the horizon. We had
lived to see one more day. I was hoping this day wasn’t our last. I
really didn’t want to die.

===========================================================

It wasn’t that long before Ricky slopped the little twin in on the
runway we had left a lifetime ago. I managed to get my heels back on,
open the hanger, and get my pickup out. Helping Ricky out and into my
pickup was tough enough. I could tell it took everything out of Ricky.
He was looking rough again.

“Ricky, what do I do? I can’t move that plane by myself.” There was no
way I was going to push that big plane back into the hanger by myself.

“Leave it for now. Find us a payphone. I need to make a call.” He was
slumped in the seat.

The problem with that is all payphones are inside the stores now.
Telephone companies got tired of repairing phones and phone booths
because someone wanted to rob the phones. I parked in front of Super Sak
and walked around the pickup to help Ricky out. Everyone within a block
of that place went to high alert as I stepped out of the truck.

Wolf whistles came across the parking lot from some guys in a truck.

“Yeah, yeah, eat your heart out kiddies. I’m all show and no go.” Ricky
was leaning on me as I helped him into the store and the phone.

Ricky handed me five dollars. “I need lots of quarters. Long distance.”

Ricky started feeding the payphone when I returned with a handful of
quarters.

Looking around there were a dozen or more people in that store. All of
them were staring. I knew why. I was almost in that purple glitter dress
I was wearing. I couldn’t do anything about it.

“Thanks Sergie. I owe you big time.” Ricky hung up.

“Jess, get me in the truck. I’m tired.” His side was all bloody again
with blood leaking through his shirt.

“Don’t you quit on me now.” I pulled his arm around my shoulder and
halfway carried him back to the truck. It was a chore getting him up in
the seat but we managed.

“Get something to eat while we are here and then find us a motel.” Ricky
handed me his billfold.

I headed back inside the store to find some juice, milk, and some of
those ready made sandwiches. One of the employees was picking up the
phone. I stopped as she punched nine one one. “Miss, hang it up or I’ll
break your head. My friend and I don’t need any police.”

Her eyes got big as she slammed it back down before it had rang.

Keeping an eye on everyone to make sure no one pulled a cell phone or
the lady didn’t make another try for her phone I collected what I needed
from the coolers. People parted as I walked back up to the counter with
my loot. As she rang up my total some cell phones came out from those
around me. They weren’t dialing. They were taking pictures.

My groceries were bagged. As I paid for them I looked the cashier in the
eye. “Please don’t call the police. There is nothing you can tell them
that will help.” I walked out hoping she had a heart.

There was no way I was going park at a motel close to that convenience
store in case the lady didn’t have a heart. Getting tangled up with the
police was not in my play book now. I drove ten or twelve miles before I
saw what I wanted. It was a motel off the main thoroughfare.

It had a kitchenette in some of the rooms. The desk clerk wouldn’t
forget me but it couldn’t be helped. I probably looked like a hooker
helping her john to a room. Make that a very, very expensive hooker. The
kind who didn’t patronize the kind of low rent motels this guy was
running.

Ricky was quickly running out of steam. It took even more effort to get
him to bed and rebandage his wound. I managed to get some liquids,
pills, and a couple bites of food down him before he was out.

“Be back shortly.” I knew he wouldn’t hear me as I headed for the
pickup.

As bad as I hated this I needed to find clothes other than what I was
wearing. The neighborhood was upscale. The little thrift store wasn’t
one of those low end places although the prices were. It wasn’t as if I
hadn’t shopped at these kind of stores for clothes and other goodies. I
just hadn’t shopped for women’s goodies. People were staring before I
ever walked into the store. Those inside seemed to lose all interest in
what they had stopped for.

Trying clothes out in the dressing room I found a three piece brown
western pants suit in a size fourteen that could handle my abundance.
There was a soft green dress in a fourteen I dropped into the cart. I
found pants, blouses, and a couple more jackets before I headed to the
shoes. After trying on several different sizes I found a seven worked
for me. There was a problem. Ricky had designed this body for five inch
heels. I found only one pair with a five inch heel and settled for one
four and a half inch in a cowgirl boot and a five inch in a fashion
boot. There were a couple big western shoulder purses I liked. They
could hold my fifty caliber without any problem. I picked out the one
with the tooling on it. A woman’s leather billfold had western tooling I
liked. I found lipstick, blush, and a whole lot of other girl items that
had never been used. After I gathered up a suit, a couple pants, and a
couple shirts for Ricky, I checked out using Ricky’s money.

A mile up the street there was a Walmart but I needed help for my next
stop. I wasn’t ready to guess at this next job. Brenda’s was in a
shopping mall I passed. I circled around and made the stop way out in
the parking lot naturally as there was no close in parking. There was
the now expected chatter around me as I walked across the parking lot to
the boutique. Inside the store was no different. Two ladies moved up
like wingmen as I walked over to the brassieres.

“May we help you?” The perky blond on my left had already sized me up.

My embarrassment was way past tense after everything Ricky and I had
been through. I pointed at the bras. “I need one of those.”

“Yes ma’am. Which style would you like? What is your size?” The brunet
had closed in for the kill.

“I honestly don’t know the answer to your questions. That is the reason
I’m here.” Of course it was evil of me. Maybe it was a little payback
for them staring at me. It was a totally honest answer. I had no idea.
If I did I would have gone to Wally World.

The blonde I was looking at had a moment of panic on her face like she
was ready to flee. Maybe those who looked like me were supposed to know
virtually every single inch of bragging rights their body had. Maybe
Ricky knew since he designed this body. I didn’t have the slightest
clue. What are your measurements ma’am? Well let’s see, too much, too
little, too much. Next question.

The blonde coughed. “Ma’am?”

“If I knew I would be able to help myself. I’m new at this so a little
help please.” That should make the girls panic or give me some help. I
waited to see what it would be.

“Uh, yes ma’am. Joan, do you have your tape with you?” The blonde held
out her hand toward the other girl.

There were three other patrons in the store. They had stopped to watch
and listen.

“Would you like to step into the dressing room and remove your dress or
do you want us to measure you…, uh…, here?” Joan passed the end of the
measuring tape to the blonde.

I made a couple more stops and headed back to the motel. If the people
at the convenience store called the police with a description of my
pickup I was pushing my luck by driving it.

Ricky was asleep. I took the scissors and cut off the bottom of the
dress turning it into a mini dress. If Ricky was right that glue we used
to attach it to me would make sure I wore this little number for another
nine days before it finally released. I pulled on the brown pants and
jacket I had purchased. I checked the mirror. My hips were pushing the
limits in those pants and the waist needed a belt. The jacket didn’t
hide the fact I was over endowed. At least it wasn’t all hanging out for
the world to see. The western boots were next. I was wishing I could do
something with all that red hair. Taking the scissors to it myself
wasn’t something I was going to do. I plopped the cowboy hat on my head,
picked up my purse, and headed back out to the truck. I was going after
soup and broth for Ricky.

===============================================================

It was the second day and he was sitting up in bed. “I’m better.” Ricky
was sipping some of the soup I had heated up.

“You look a lot better. Yesterday I picked up a change of clothes for
you. Those you are wearing have blood all over them. You are probably
through bleeding over everything unless you strain something. Why don’t
you change.” I tossed the pants and shirt I had picked up at the thrift
store on his bed.

He handed the soup can back to me and started taking off his clothes. “I
noticed you picked up a change of clothes yourself. You did a very good
job. You look really nice.”

Yeah? Don’t get used to the view. I plan on slitting my own throat when
you get where you can get back up and running again.” I rinsed the can
and tossed it into the trash.

“Jess, I’m sorry. I wish I could take it all back. I wish I had never
done it. I can’t. The lab in Mexico was the only one.” He stopped
dressing and was looking at me with sorrow or pity in his eyes.

“I wish you hadn’t either but let’s get real. You did and I am. We will
make the best of a bad situation as long as we have to. This body isn’t
Tom. That fifty bruised my wrists with the kick. I am not going to be
playing any more He Man games. I tried holding the AR. It is too heavy
for me to be accurate with it unless I have it in a bipod position.”

Raising my foot I held it out. “A woman doesn’t lift a whole lot when
she is wearing heels. She doesn’t run worth a crap. She looks damn good
wiggling her ass as she walks. I always loved watching a woman in heels.
Now that I’m the one wearing heels I think it sucks big time.”

“Jess…,”

I held up my hand. “You say I’m sorry one more time and I’ll shoot you
myself. What is the plan for getting back into that lab of yours here in
Ft. Worth. And what is so important we are going to risk going back in
the CIA lion’s den to do such a stupid thing?”

“All my notes and data are on a drive in a computer in that lab.
Everything I did in the other lab is all there.” He had his pants on and
was finding his shoes.

“What makes you think it is still there? Have you forgot the CIA and
that company you used to work for? Those people keep computer geeks on a
leash digging through other people’s trash looking for hidden goodies.
I’m surprised they didn’t show up in Mexico if you were transmitting
data.”

For the first time in a couple days Ricky grinned. “I routed the data
through Russia and a blind server. Let’s say it got routed to several
blind servers before being sent to the lab here. They couldn’t trace it
and some of those places the long arm of the US Law isn’t able to reach
into. It is all encrypted data. The encrypted data is encrypted twice
over.

I know for a fact they have been capturing the download as it goes into
the lab. I know they have been feeding it through a super computer to
unscramble it since day one. Maybe in a thousand years at the current
rate they might get the data unlocked but I doubt it. My information is
so scrambled it would be akin to trying to reassemble a scrambled egg
back into what came out of the chicken.”

“Okay, you have all your lab notes in this lab. Even if we get the
information how long will it take you to rebuild your lab and put me
back together? A couple months? A year?” Ricky’s face gave me the answer
I didn’t want. “Years? Damn Ricky, how long?”

“Jess, I’m sorry…,”

“CUT THE CRAP! HOW LONG!”

Ricky shrugged his shoulders. “Fifteen or ten if problems don’t have to
be worked out.”

“FIFTEEN! YOU ALREADY BUILT ONE! HOW DIFFICULT CAN IT BE TO DO IT AGAIN?
WHAT PROBLEMS? YOU ALREADY WORKED ALL THE BUGS OUT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN
PROBLEMS?” To say I wasn’t hearing what I wanted to hear and I was
pissed was an understatement.

“Jess…,”

“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry. I’ll beat you to death right here and
now without a drop of remorse.” I was more than mad at Ricky. It was all
his fault. Everything was his fault. The fire was his fault. Getting
shot was his fault. The guys I killed were his fault.

The tears came unexpectedly. “Damn you” I tried wiping them away. “Damn
you all to hell”

Ricky started toward me. “Jess…”

I held up my hand as I cried and screamed at him. “GET THE HELL AWAY
FROM ME! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! JUST STAY THE HELL AWAY!”

I stormed out of the room crying my heart out. I climbed up into the
pickup and thought about driving away and never looking back. Where
would I go? What could I do to support myself? I thought about that
fifty caliber under the seat. I could blow my brains out and it would
all be over. And I cried and cried until there were no more tears or
self pity left inside me.

It really wasn’t Ricky’s fault. He saved my life. And this? He didn’t
plan on it going terribly wrong or he would have never done it. I knew
Ricky better than that. I trusted him with my life. I wiped my eyes and
looked at a couple dozen faces looking at me from their rooms. That got
me tickled. Probably thought it was a lover’s quarrel. Lovers? If those
people only knew. Never happen.

I wiped away the last of the tears before I walked back into the room.
“I’m sorry. It wasn’t your fault.”

A smile touched Ricky’s lips. “We had enough sorry to go around for
awhile don’t you think? Would you mind driving if an old friend asked
you out for something besides soup?”

“We are still friends?” I pushed my hair back over my shoulders before I
plopped that western hat down on my head and picked up my purse.

“We’ll always be friends Jess. I promise I’ll bring Tom back as quickly
as I can. Think he will still be my friend after this?” Ricky opened the
door and waited for me.

“I believe I can speak for Tom. He will always be your friend no matter
what. A word of caution though. He may punch you in the face for what
you did next time you see him.”

“Sounds fair.” Ricky closed the door behind us.

“Do you think he will mind if I take his girl out to eat?” Ricky was
getting into the pickup.

“As long as you behave. He won’t mind.” I found it funny we were talking
about me in the past tense as if I wasn’t here. Well…?

Ricky mentioned several places he would like to go. I deep sixed all of
them. If Ricky had gone there before, those CIA bloodhounds might have
bribed some of the staff to give a call if Ricky showed back up. It was
a sure bet the CIA canvassed everything with in a ten mile radius of
Ricky’s lab for such an opportunity.

The meal was light even if we were in a real restaurant. I didn’t let
Ricky order anything heavy. He might not have been gut shot but it made
little difference. Ricky paid for everything with cash. No credit cards.
The CIA birddogs would be on those for sure.

We received a lot of looks. It wasn’t anything compared to when I was
wearing that almost dress. The pants and jacket couldn’t hide
everything. They did cover most of me.

We were walking out when I reached behind my head and fluffed my hair
hanging down my back. “Ricky, I need a haircut.”

He brushed down my back before his arm went around my waist as we walked
to the pickup. “Jess, would you mind if you didn’t? It’s part of you.”

“There is no way to hide it. There is too much to bunch up under my hat.
You can bet your last lucky dime people talk about the bimbo with the
big tits and long red hair. If I get a haircut they would only have half
as much to talk about.” Ricky had opened my door for me. I slid up in
the driver’s seat.

“Give it some time to grow on you Jess. I would rather you didn’t cut
it.” He walked around and got into the passenger side.

I don’t know why Ricky’s opinion mattered to me but it did. “I’ll think
about it.”

On the way back to the motel I pumped Ricky for information on what his
plans were since he was feeling better. “How you plan on getting back
into your lab to pick up the information you stored there?”

“I’m hoping you will drive over there and pick up the storage vault.”

That got my attention. “Say what! You think I want to walk into the arms
of the CIA? You have toxic poison of the brain or something? I smacked
their people around pretty good and embarrassed the hell out of a couple
of their agents. Welcoming me back wouldn’t exactly be a homecoming
party.”

“Jess have you looked in the mirror today? Have you forgot you and Tom
weren’t twins? They wouldn’t stop you. Although we know they will be
monitoring the place why would they stop and question you? Torturing you
to find out who you are and what you know wouldn’t be in their handbook.

You are a new face on the scene. New faces are like pieces in a puzzle.
They wait to see where those faces fit in the picture before they boil
you in oil for all your secrets.” Ricky waited for that to sink in.

I could only shake my head in disbelief. “New face? That’s not what I
want to become. Right now I am not even a zero in anyone’s files. As far
as anyone besides you and me and the few people who have seen me in
their store, I don’t even exist. I would like to keep it that way until
I figure out how I am going to support myself for the next fifteen years
until you bring Tom back.”

“Give me a couple more days Jess. I have resources coming to help.”

The pickup was a problem. It had registration and tags in Tom’s name. If
the police ran those plates the CIA would be all over us like stink on a
skunk. We couldn’t get a rental. That took an ID even if Ricky had
enough money to pay cash for one. Again, flagged and the CIA would be
hot on our tails. I pulled into a grocery store to pick up more food
besides soup. If it was going to be a couple more days before help
arrived I didn’t want to be driving the pickup more than necessary.

With me showering with what was left of the dress still glued to my
breasts, the water helped it to come unglued. It was the fifth day after
Ricky had reshaped my body. I was toweling off when the bustier peeled
off the left breast. I worked at the right one until it too peeled off.
Ricky had seen everything before so being modest wasn’t in my mental
calculations. I walked into the room with the towel in my hands.

Ricky looked up from where he had been working on some notes he had
started. His eyes were moving back toward his tablet when they snapped
back in my direction a shocked look on his face. “cough, Jess…, uh…,
um…, you need to cover up.”

“Why? You have seen this before. Probably a couple thousand times while
you were designing it in that system of yours.” I was digging through my
stash looking for that bra I had purchased for this occasion.

“uh…, well…, ah…, it isn’t quite the same thing. And the circumstances
have changed. From now on it would probably be best if you kept your
body covered up. Please?”

I held the bra up and studied it. “Getting into that rig is gonna be a
trick.”

I slipped into it before I walked over to stand in front of Ricky. I
turned my back to him. “Hook me up.”

Ricky clutzed it before he finally managed to get it fastened. The bra
wasn’t comfortable and was pinching me. Although I didn’t have a
lifetime learning how to be a girl, I hadn’t got this old as a virgin.
Some of the girls with the bigger ones, like myself, wiggled things
around after corralling their puppies. It took some doing but I finally
got comfortable inside that get up.

“What a pain in the ass. The sales ladies told me I needed something
called a long line bra or corset to support my size. They didn’t carry
them. They told me LeParis Carrousel would have my size. If we have time
before we are hauled off to the Rubber Romper Room by the CIA I’d like
to pick up another bra.” I found panties and pulled them on before I
turned around to look at Rick.

“If you think you can spare the money that is. I imagine we will be
thinking more about food before this plays too long. When I borrowed
your billfold I noticed you carried quite a bit of money. I didn’t count
it. No matter how much you have, the well is going to run dry sooner
rather than later.

When I got sick in Mexico and figured I was done for. I stopped paying
rent on my apartment. They would have sold or trashed everything to try
and recoup their rent. That included the title on the truck. Everything
else I owned burned up in that lab. You can’t use any of your credit
cards or we will be greeted by the CIA or whoever else wants what you
designed.” I picked up my pants and was pulling them on. The western
shirt was next. And then socks and cowboy boots.

Ricky shook his head. “Would you be offended if I told you I had the
pleasure of watching the sexiest stripper act I have ever witnessed in
my whole life?”

“What are you babbling about? I wasn’t getting undressed. I was getting
dressed.” I fluffed my hair out over my shoulders and down my back.

“Un huh and you do it better than any woman I’ve ever seen.”

“You’re one sick puppy. You know that? I’m going for a walk. I need out
of this cage for some air.” I picked up my purse, pushed my hair back,
and slid the strap up on my shoulder.

“I’ll walk with you.” He was rising up from the chair.

“Ricky, I’d rather be alone for a little bit. Please, if you don’t
mind.” I waited for an answer.

“Jess…, You’re a woman. A damn beautiful woman. We have been in this
room for three days. You can bet your beautiful ass, word has spread
about the woman with the big boobs and long red hair who is staying in
room forty three. I had rather you didn’t walk alone. What I want you to
do is pack your things. Let’s move to another motel. We have overstayed
our time limit at this one. If you still feel like that walk you can do
it at the next one where no one will be waiting for you to step out of
the room even if a look is all they want.” He was putting his notes
away.

I stopped before I opened the door and gave it some thought. Ricky was
right. We had overstayed our visit for two people on the list of whoever
wanted to pull us in. I headed back across the room to gather up
everything. It doesn’t take long if one doesn’t have a lot of things to
pack. Five minutes later I had circled the room making sure nothing was
left before Ricky and I headed to the pickup.

===========================================================

Three days after leaving that first motel Ricky told me to load up
again. We weren’t coming back to the second motel.

“Jess, drive up to the Will Rogers Memorial Center.” Ricky climbed into
the pickup as I started it up.

“We are going to a show or something?” I was curious why we were headed
toward a convention center.

“Something. I want you to go into the main entrance. There is a
multicultural exhibit in building two. Find the Finnish exhibit booth.
You will purchase a magazine with the name Finland Today. Make sure the
lady with the nametag Helga is in the booth and you purchase it from
her. Pay for it with this. Wait for a receipt.” He was clutching
something as he held out his left hand

I stuck out my right hand for whatever it was. Something heavy dropped
into my palm along with a ten dollar bill. It was a silver dollar. I
took a quick look at Ricky. “Do I want to know?”

“I had rather you didn’t.” Ricky was holding out two twenties. “Cost
money to park and more to get in so they can sell you something. And
Jess.”

“Yes?”

Ricky grinned. “You’ll be lucky to find parking with in two or three
blocks of that place.”

“Oh swell. Ah what the hell. At least I’m not having to walk it in a
glitter dress slit clear up to my hip.”

After I parked Ricky wouldn’t let me drop my fifty cal in my shoulder
purse. “Jess, last time I was here they didn’t scan everyone. However
they do pull people aside for a spot check. I can almost guarantee you
will be pulled for a spot check. Not because they think you are carrying
but because they just want to look at you for a little bit.”

I was ready to panic. ”Pull me aside! I don’t have any identification.
What happens then? You want me to get arrested?”

Ricky got to laughing until his side hurt. He put his hands over his
wound as he shook his head. “It isn’t illegal to walk around in Texas
without an identification. They will ask so they can get your name and
address for their own personal interest. Jess they are guys, you’re a
beautiful woman. You might as well get used to being treated like one.
Guys will roust you just to put their hands on you if they think they
can get away with it.”

“Oh swell, just damn peachy keen! Now you tell me I can expect to be
fondled by every red blooded male within line of sight. I can’t wait to
see their faces when they ask me what my name is. Oh sir, my name is
Jessica Rabbit. Didn’t you see my movie and I’ve been in all the
magazines.” I gave Ricky my most disdainful look.

Ricky was laughing again. “Stop, stop, you’re killing me. Use Jessica
Rabbi. Now go. The sooner you go the sooner you get back and the less
time I spend sitting in this pickup with my side hurting. You have any
more of those pain pills? Ridding across town has brought the pain back
to the surface.”

Twenty dollars to park, ten dollars to get into the building, Ricky’s
funds had to be getting short. The pickup was needing gas. The gas I
bought in Dallas a lifetime ago smelled bad and was about used up
driving around Fort Worth. I wonder if anyone would hire me as a heavy
equipment operator? Miss Rabbit do you have any experience? Sure, I have
forty years running heavy equipment. Could I name the companies I worked
for? Sure, but they probably wouldn’t know me now.

“Miss would you step over here please.” One of the guards was motioning
for me as I walked into the building.

Okay, I’ll give Ricky a plus for his take on the guards pulling me
aside. I walked over where the three guards were standing watching the
people traffic. Or they were until I stopped in front of them. The other
people coming in had become invisible. I was all the guards were
concentrating on now.

“Would you open your purse please.” The guy with Cain on his name tag
was pointing at my purse.

“Sure.” Sliding my purse strap off my shoulder I placed my purse on the
table and opened it up for them.

Cain and then Harrelson looked down inside my purse. Harrelson looked up
at me. It wasn’t my face he was looking at. “Miss do you have some
identification on you?”

Ricky just won his second gold star. He knew these guys better than they
knew themselves. I dug around inside my purse for a second. “I’m sorry,
I must have left my billfold in my other purse when I changed this
morning.”

“Yes ma’am, what’s your name?” The guy with Rihter on his name tag also
couldn’t look up high enough to look me in the eyes.

“Jessica Rabbi.”

“Spell it please.” Cain was back in the loop.

“J E S S I C A…, R A B B I” I started to laugh. If they only knew.

“Yes ma’am. Where do you live Miss Rabbi?” Rihter wasn’t to be left out.

“Tucson Arizona. I was headed to…, Clackston, Arkansas to…, look over
some…, equipment. I heard there was a trade show here at the memorial
and decided to…, stop and look.” I was thinking of why I had said
equipment? What kind of equipment would someone who looked like me be
looking for? I knew why Arizona and Arkansas jumped into my mind for an
address. Too far out of state for these guys to possibly know the truth
if they had asked me to cough up some phony address.

“You staying in town long?” Harrelson was a birddog on the prowl. If
Jessica was staying for a night or two she might consider him as a date
tonight.

“No. This tradeshow was my last stop in Fort Worth. I’ll be back on the
road in a couple hours. I love driving in the evenings. The sun isn’t so
hot and the scenery is a lot prettier to look at with the longer
shadows.” I closed up my purse, pushed my hair back off my shoulder, and
slid the purse strap up on my right shoulder.

“Yes ma’am, enjoy the trade show.” Cain was looking disappointed along
with Harrelson and Rihter.

It was involuntary as I smiled and nodded at the guards before I turned
and headed to find that Finnish booth. I wasn’t smiling at them, I darn
near giggled out loud. They were too predictable. Men! Show them a pair
of big boobs and they become boobs themselves.

OH MY GOD! DID I JUST THINK THAT? I was starting to think like a woman!
I’m going to kill Ricky when I get back to the pickup.

It took a little bit of wandering the aisles before I found the Finish
Booth. Sure enough a lady with Helga on her nametag was manning the
booth. I walked up and looked at several of the brochures before I
picked up the magazine Finland Today.

“We have many beautiful places for visitors to enjoy. Our fjords are the
deepest blue water one has ever seen or swam in. We have many ski
resorts. Our cuisine reflects many cultures over the time of history.”
She stepped up to give me the tourist pitch.

“Maybe. I think I will take the magazine and read about it.” I reached
in my purse and wrapped my hand around the ten dollars and the silver
dollar Ricky gave me.

“The magazine lists many resorts and scenic areas of interest. Three
dollars for the magazine.” She held out her hand for money.

I palmed what I had into her hand and pushed her fingers around it.

One had to be looking really hard at her face to see it happen. A
flicker of surprise in her eyes was the only indicator she knew what the
money was for. She reached out and took the magazine. “Here let me put
it in a bag for you.”

She walked to the back of her booth and slid the magazine into a plastic
bag imprinted with Visit Finland on it. She returned and handed me the
bag. “It’s such a beautiful bag. I hope you don’t throw it away.”

“Thank you.” I was headed for the exit and the pickup. What I handed her
wasn’t a payoff. It was only a signal I was a messenger. Don’t trash the
bag? Maybe what I was carrying back to Ricky was the bag rather than the
magazine? I hoped he knew because I sure didn’t.

A block away from the pickup I was looking for Ricky. I didn’t see him.
It was only when I walked up to the drivers side and started to open the
door I saw him crammed down into the floorboard as much as possible.
“What’s up?”

“You are being followed. Don’t look like you are looking. There is a man
in a gray shirt, casual jacket. He is probably standing by a vehicle
about one hundred feet away. He followed you out. He will act like he is
searching for his car keys to get into the car he is standing next to.
He is waiting for you to leave so he can flag his ride. They will tail
you.”

“Open up your magazine and act like you are reading it. We can out wait
him. He can only look like he is fumbling for car keys for so long
before he looks out of place.”

Climbing up into the pickup I pulled the magazine out of the bag .
Laying the bag down on the seat I pushed it toward Ricky before I opened
up the magazine. “She said I shouldn’t throw the bag away.”

“Smart girl.” He pulled it in, turned it inside out, and was holding it
to look at it up against the light.

“He isn’t walking away. He is headed this way.” Looking over the top of
the magazine I was watching the man.

“He is going to read your license plate. Go stand in front of it. Check
your engine. Or something.” Ricky tried to look even smaller in the
floorboard of the pickup.

The fifty was under the seat. I slipped it into my purse before I opened
the door and walked around to the back of the pickup. I placed my purse
on the bumper in front of the tag.

The man stopped when he was where he could read the tag if my purse and
myself hadn’t been in front of it. “Got problems?”

I shook my head. “Not yet.”

From the flicker in his eyes he wasn’t quite sure how to read that one.
“Planning on problems coming along later, maybe?”

“In play.”

That was all he needed. He knew, I knew the reason he was there. “Lots
of luck then.”

“Luck always helps.” I couldn’t help myself as I had to smile over that
one. And sometimes a change of life helps a whole lot more. If he only
knew I was Thomas Baker he probably would have whipped out that Glock he
had in his shoulder holster and arrested me.

“You know, all I have to do is make a call. I could have fifty Rangers
here in a couple minutes.” He was studying me to see if that chased any
secret bugs out of the conversation.

I figured he was over stating the numbers but it didn’t make a whole lot
of difference. Two agents or fifty the situation could get ugly in a
hurry. I wasn’t going to let them have Ricky. He was my ticket back to
being me. And I wasn’t going to any interrogation room. I shrugged it
off.

“Not scaring you am I? How big is that pistol you’re carrying I’m not
seeing?” He gave me a full body scan looking for bumps that didn’t
belong.

“Bigger than that Glock you’re carrying.” There wasn’t any need of
denying I was carrying. At this point he didn’t seem interested in
hauling me in other than a male hormone thing or desire to get his hands
on my body. I had to smile over that one. I was one step ahead of men. I
had been one. And I planned on being one again when Ricky fixed me.

“Must be in your purse than. Your clothes are too tight to conceal a gun
that big. You military or ex military? That kind of knock down power
isn’t something civilians choose. I have never seen a woman carry one.”

“It’s possible.” He was digging without hauling me in. I didn’t think it
was the idea I was carrying that stopped him. He was playing nice.

He nodded. “Probably you mean. You ever kill anyone?”

That one took a bite. We never forget the ones we kill. “I did what I
was told to do.”

“You mean trained to do. How many?” He knew he had touched a nerve. He
was pursuing the thread.

“One was too many. If I had been trained as you suggest.” I didn’t need
to count them. I remembered every single one.

He hesitated as he studied my eyes. “Sniper, you were a damn sniper. A
woman sniper…, I’ll be damned. You were. I can see it in your face. You
guys…, people never go any place without that toy once you have used it.
In your pickup isn’t it? No wonder I don’t scare you or why you picked
up on me. Iraq? Afghanistan? ”

It was on the tip of my tongue to say Nam. My brain kicked in before it
left my mouth. Too long ago. Actually it wasn’t me that first homed in
on him. Ricky spotted him first. If he wanted to see my rifle it wasn’t
going to happen. It would mean he would also see Ricky. I put my hand in
the opening of my purse. “I’m not going to give you permission to search
my pickup.”

“Fair enough. As a professional courtesy I’m not going to ask. Curiosity
is killing me though. Do you believe you can pull your gun out of your
purse faster than I can get mine? Not that I want to test it for real.”
He was smiling as his eyes danced with amusement.

“Let’s not find out if you don’t mind. Sometimes things go terribly
wrong when people start playing with loaded guns…, I never pointed a gun
at anything I didn’t intend to kill.” My fingers were wrapped around the
fifty as I waited.

“Sounds like good advice. I’m going back inside to look at the trade
show. Hope those troubles you thought might be coming don’t happen. I
have a real strong feeling we will meet again Red. I’ll be the one
carrying a white flag if there are a bunch of guys who think you should
be brought in. Play nice and don’t kill the guy with the white flag.” He
turned and walked off toward the Coliseum

There was no adrenaline rush. Some of the guys would pump up full
overload as they searched for their target. The kill shot was another
rush. I never received any of that. It was a job. I didn’t hate it, I
didn’t like it. I treated it as a job I was told to do. I was positive
this agent would have treated me differently if I had been Tom. Lead
probably would have been flying. I was beginning to figure out there
were advantages to being the over endowed sex bimbo Ricky had turned me
into. I was still gonna kill him after he changed me back.

He walked into the building before I climbed back into the pickup. “He’s
gone.”

Ricky was still down on the floor. “Drive out of here. I’ll stay where
I’m at until you put some distance between him and us.”

“Your pain. Springs are heavy duty and shocks are super struts. It rides
like a truck for a reason.” I pulled out and headed for the street.

“How much gas you got?”

“Eighth of a tank. About two gallons or twenty miles town driving.” I
was wondering how far we were going?”

“You need gas. Take some side streets for awhile to make sure we aren’t
being followed. Get gas before jumping back up on the interstate. Go
south and pick up thirty five south. Drop off on twenty west. About
thirty miles west you will see some signs pointing toward Weatherford
Lake. Take it.”

“How long you plan on staying down on the floor?” I couldn’t imagine
Ricky’s gunshot wound getting any better in the position he was in.

“Eight or ten blocks if you are sure we aren’t being followed. Try and
not hit all the pot holes in the road would you?” He winced as we
bounced over a big one.

“Floor board driver. Everyone wants to be the pilot in command.” I was
going to make sure we weren’t being followed before I stopped for gas.
Ricky needed off the floorboard.

With all the zig zaging we did to make sure we weren’t followed it took
a couple hours to make it to that lake road. Ricky guided me to a little
off road back in the mesquite where it seemed we drove for another mile
or so. I was looking at a small tan car pulled back into the mesquite.
Well hidden unless someone drove upon it like we did.

“What’s the story?” I pulled the fifty out of my purse and laid it on
the seat by my right hip. I stopped about fifty feet from the car not
knowing what to expect.

“Hopefully help if things didn’t get crossed up in the timing.” Ricky
slid out of the seat after I stopped.

The car door opened. One of the finest examples of female I had seen
since I last laid eyes on Tracy that fateful night, rose out of that
car. She did it gracefully and eloquently. She had all the right curves
in all the right places in perfect proportions. I was jealous. I was
wondering if she was a product of God or if she had made a trip through
Ricky’s machine?

Ricky glanced in my direction and laughed. “Close your mouth Jess. She’s
a girl, you’re a girl.”

“Yeah, but not forever. Get her name and phone number would you?” I
wanted my first date to be with this girl when I was Tom again.

“Nice to see you again Linda.” Ricky gave her a hug after she walked
over to our pickup.

“You too Ricky.” She hugged him back before placing the briefcase she
was carrying up on the hood of the pickup. “Everything is in the case.
New identity, new passport, money.”

She pointed at me. “Your girlfriend Ricky? No one knows who you are hon.
There aren’t any records. The way you stand you are out of place. The
crew has been trying to figure out if you are some dumb bimbo Ricky
picked up on the fly? I have no idea where Ricky found you.”

I was mulling that one over. Being called a dumb bimbo was new territory
for me. I honestly was thinking about beating the holy shit out of the
woman. What didn’t register was when and where she or her crew looked me
over? Probably at the trade show booth?

Ricky looked at me, back to Linda, and back at me. “Claws in Jess. I
need what Linda brought.

Linda opened up the briefcase and was showing the papers. “You are Ricky
Ronald Chavenski, Russian, American, Peruvian. Your government can run a
check on the papers. They are legit. You exist in the system. Credit
cards, money in US, Swiss, Rubles, every thing all good business
managers would carry. Your plane is designated as a Peruvian diplomatic
courier.”

Looking at Ricky she shook her head. “I wouldn’t get too deep into
diplomatic immunity if the situation gets iffy. Those papers won’t hold
up to any scrutiny. Bluff your way out before they have a chance to run
the papers.”

“When are you going to share all your ideas with us. You know my
government would take good care of you. The finest wine, live anywhere
you want, all the help you could desire…,”

She gave me a careful examination before turning her attention back to
Ricky. “Dimitry said he would even promise me as your mistress. The cad
has no loyalty. I am seriously thinking about shooting him next time I
see him.”

Ricky laughed as he leaned up, wrapped his arms around her, and kissed
her on the cheek. “An offer I almost can’t refuse. But alas, I must
because when you got mad at me what would stop you from shooting me? I
love you my sweet temptress but I would live in fear for my life.”

Linda pushed back and looked him in the eyes. “No different than what
you are doing now is it? Ricky, the FBI, CIA, NSA, and every damn bounty
hunter your government can buy is trying to find you. Your burned out
lab in Acapulco with six dead bodies strung around it put everyone on
high alert.”

“How…” Ricky looked surprised.

“Know? Everything can be burned to a crisp, the basic idea still lies
intact. Someone with unusual skills in the paranormal had assembled
something. Did you get the Philadelphia Project working? Is that what
burned up your lab?” She waited for an answer.

Ricky shook his head. “You and I have never lied to one another. That is
the reason I’m not going to answer your questions. If you know the lab
went up in smoke then you know every thing I was working on is past
tense now. Don’t ask me again because I can’t tell you.”

“Money…”

“Linda, I don’t have need of money. Your government paid me quite well
for the White Out schematics. Hon, let it go. If you need to tell
Dimitri or Sergie something, tell them it is what they think it is.”

She stepped up, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed Ricky on
the lips before she looked him in the eyes. “My government wants you as
bad as your own government. If they think you are going to fall into the
hands of some US agency they will do every thing they can to get their
hands on you first. If that isn’t possible they will kill you to keep
your knowledge from your government.”

Ricky held onto her hand to stop her from leaving. “Another favor?”

“Name it.”

Ricky nodded in my direction. “She needs an identity.”

Linda was taking a good hard look. “How soon?”

“ASAP”

“I need pictures. Is this how you want her to look? I have a camera in
the car.” She walked back to her car. A second later she pulled out one
big high end camera with a long telephoto lens on it.

“Always prepared are we?” Ricky was being sarcastic.

Linda snapped the lens off and replaced it with a shorter lens. “In my
line of work? You are pulling my leg my sweet.”

She took several pictures before she walked up in front of me and
pointed the camera at my face. “Smile, snarl, growl, whatever it is
cowgirls do.”

A smile was the last thing I felt like doing. I brought up what I
thought was a happy face.

“Lose the hat, bring your hair up over your shoulder, turn slightly away
from the camera, and look off into the distance showgirl.” She was
steadily clicking the camera.

Doing as she suggested I was thinking about that camera. There wasn’t
any whirl as the film wound with each shot. It had to be a digital
camera.

“Remove your shirt.”

“WHAT! I will not.” I wasn’t going to start showing skin for some stupid
identification card or whatever.

Linda’s eyes were dancing as she glanced at Ricky.

Ricky shook his head. “Jess, take off your shirt. The guys will put
clothes back on you when they touch up your pictures.”

“This better not be a joke.” I unsnapped the shirt and laid it on the
hood of the pickup.

Linda hadn’t stopped taking pictures even when I was undressing. “Move
some so there will be different poses. And then take off your pants.”

I rolled my eyes at Ricky. “I’m going to kill you when this is over.”

Linda backed up as she was taking pictures.

She finally stopped and snapped the cover back on the camera. “The lab
can find something to work with in there. What is your name?”

“uh…,” I vapor locked. My name or the name Ricky had hung on me?

“Jessica Sarah Rabbit.” Ricky answered for me.

I gave Ricky my ‘you’re road kill’ stare.

Linda picked it up. She laughed. “Okay, Ricky even putting a rush on it
they will need six days. I need to send them the pictures, they will
have to work on her attire, and then they will need to route it through
government channels to make it official. Where do we meet?”

“Never the same place twice. Where do you suggest?” He was watching me
as I pulled my clothes back on.

“That little airport where you parked your plane? From the turn in at
the airport go south of that thirty point four miles. There is a ranch
road leading to the west. Follow that for about six miles and you will
find me. Be there sometime between oh five hundred and oh six hundred.”

“Until next time Miss Vegas.” She walked back over to her car.

She held the door open, shook her head, and turned toward Ricky. “You
need to ditch the bitch. She stands out like the headliner for a Vegas
show opener. Everyone who sees her will remember her unless they are
already juiced up in a mental ward.”

A smile spread across Ricky’s face from ear to ear. “Linda, play nice.
Those six dead bodies back in Mexico…? Jess tapped them. What did I do
to help? I got shot. I wouldn’t have made it if Jess hadn’t dragged my
ass out of there.”

Linda took a slow measured look in my direction. “My man said a fifty
caliber put em all down. Everyone a single bullet kill shot. You’re a
damn sleeper. Gives a whole new meaning to looks to kill by. I have
picked up on some of the best in the business. Your looks sure fooled
me. I’m not going to apologize for calling you a bimbo. I will apologize
for telling Ricky to toss you out with the trash. Next time show me why
Ricky puts so much faith in you.”

“Ricky, get rid of the pickup. I don’t know how you have managed to run
around this long without getting stopped by the law. That pickup is
registered and licensed to your friend Thomas Baker. It has been on the
hot list from that time your friend took out two CIA agents. Mailing
back their personals from Santa Cruz, Bolivia pissed them off even more.
Six agents flew down to Bolivia to find you and your friend. If you see
him tell him to keep his head down.

Ricky took a couple steps in her direction. “Linda, wait. Who sells good
rides and doesn’t ask too many questions?”

“Dallas…? Try Diamond Imports. Tell Hernandez you know Dimitri. Tell him
the pickup is on the hot list.”

She slid into the driver’s seat and was gone almost as quickly.

“Next time?” I was watching the dust settle back down on the road as the
car disappeared around a turn in the road.

“Linda meant for you to keep your gun handy. She wants to see how good
you are.”

“Ricky, I’m not going to get into any showdown with somebody who wants
to see if I can shoot or not.” I couldn’t believe Linda would suggest
such a thing.

The pickup wasn’t the last of our identification. Ricky still had his
plane and his car was in storage. We sure weren’t going to go get his
car. An old pickup in Texas is one of a couple million other old beat up
trucks. Every rancher, farmer, wannbe cowboy drove one along with all
the construction guys. It was the only reason we didn’t get stopped the
two weeks we spent driving the thing. There is safety in numbers. Old
pickups in Texas meant a big herd of vehicles to look at if one wanted
to pick out just one from that mass of motors.

=============================================================

We drove over to Dallas and found Diamond Imports although imports
wasn’t all the vehicles Hernandez sold. The guy’s name was Jimmy
Hernandez.

“Looking for an older dependable ride in a don’t look at me style and
color.” Ricky was explaining what he was looking for.

“I have a few of those on the lot. Why don’t we go see if any of them is
what you want?” Jimmy pointed out to the cars scattered across two
blocks of car lot.

Ricky never turned around to see as he watched Jimmy. “Dimitri said you
would have what I was looking for. Something you would drive yourself.”

Jimmy’s eyes flickered. “You have a trade in?”

Ricky pointed at the pickup. “No title and it’s on the hot list. Don’t
send it back out.”

“Get in your truck and follow me.” He headed for a Mercedes sports.

We followed Jimmy for a couple miles before he pulled up to a big
warehouse as the overhead door went up. He drove in and motioned us to
follow.

He was standing by an older Lincoln when we pulled into the warehouse.
The door closed behind us.

Ricky slid out and headed over where Jimmy was standing.

I could smell paint, oil, and a mix of chemicals. My hand went into my
purse. I had my fingers wrapped around the fifty. I opened the door and
stepped out. The AR was behind the seat. I unzipped the soft jacket it
was in and waited. Scanning the warehouse I didn’t see anyone else but
it was a big hole with six vehicles parked in there. Ricky could take
care of business. I wasn’t moving away from the pickup.

“Jess, come mere.” Ricky was waving me over.

I shook my head as I tried to keep an eye on all the corners of the
warehouse.

“Your friend, she careful. Jess your friend Ricky wants you to look at
the car. He says you know your vehicles and he doesn’t. He wants your
opinion.” Jimmy motioned me over.

“Okay.” I pulled the AR out and slipped the strap on my shoulder with
the rifle in the ready position. The clip was already in it. With a
scope on top and a laser cradled up against the scope it not only looked
lethal it was.

Jimmy wasn’t the only one who looked shocked.

Ricky didn’t do any better. “Jess…”

“Cork it. We are in a warehouse full of worked over vehicles. Those who
work on these vehicles to put back out on the street aren’t your usual
law abiding citizens.” I walked over where I would be facing the same
direction Jimmy had been and stood behind him.

Jimmy laughed as his eyes danced in amusement. “Senorita, I assure even
though you are right about the cars were worked on and painted, they are
all legal. This Lincoln is older yes? The engine, transmission, running
gear, and all electrical components were replaced with new. The car was
driven five hundred miles after leaving the shop to make sure nothing
was left undone and to test it. It will do a hundred and eighty for
sure. The tires are run flat. The doors have bullet proof armor plating.
The glass not so much but would still keep out most pistol slugs. There
is a police radio and scanner in the vehicle. It can also double as a
police car with flashing lights hidden behind the grill and in the
sunroof.”

He ran his hands down the side. “It looks old…, no? The man who
repainted this car is an artist. It takes talent to make new paint look
sun faded and old. My macho redid the engine. He should be building race
car engines. The engine is blueprinted and balanced. The intake and
exhaust ported and tuned. The blower is belt driven. He told me this
engine can easily put out eight hundred horsepower and not be breathing
hard. It has a Dodge truck rear end to handle all that horsepower. Heavy
duty shocks and springs for the weight.”

Jimmy swept his hand out at all the other vehicles. “Each one is my
baby, designed for a purpose and a special client. This Lincoln was
built for Mr. Dimitri. Not for him personally but one of his clients. I
don’t believe Mr.Ricky Ronald Chavenski was that client, but for Mr.
Dimitri I build another.”

“Who?” Ricky rolled his head and his eyes. “Oh.”

Jimmy laughed. “Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Listen, I don’t care who you
are or what problems you two are facing as long as you don’t bring the
wolves to my door. I sell vehicles which in a sense are like the assault
rifle she is holding. They serve a purpose to the people who buy them.
How that person uses their vehicle is not my responsibility. You drive
it out of here and it never existed in my inventory. The title and
registration is legal.”

He got serious. “You want the car? The warranty is my word. No paper
work. You have problems I’ll take care of them as long as you didn’t
drive it off a cliff or get hit by a missile. Some things the verbal
warranty doesn’t cover. There are three different sets of plates come
with the deal. Legal for the year and model. They will hold up for the
plate scanners. Far as the police eyeballing the car? Older family cars
don’t attract a second look the same way high performance wheels do.”

“Shall we talk price or is there something else you had in mind?” He
wasn’t looking at Ricky when he asked.

I never had a chance to ask Ricky before he pulled out a credit card. He
held it out to Jimmy. “How much?”

”Seventy two thousand.” Jimmy took the credit card.

Ricky nodded. “Don’t pull out more than nine thousand at a time.”

“Is it good for the total amount?” Jimmy hesitated.

“Provided you don’t try to get it all in one day.” Ricky glanced over at
me. “Get all your gear and put it in the car.”

Jimmy put his hand in his pocket and came back up with a cell phone and
four sets of keys. He held the keys out to me. “People in the line of
work we know nothing about and don’t talk about seem to have a problem
with keys. I don’t keep a set if you lose yours. Don’t call me if things
go terribly wrong and someone kept your keys. Inside the driver’s side
about three inches up under the dash with your left hand is a life
switch. It has a five second delay relay. Pull it out and hold. It will
try to reset, count to five, the car will start, the steering will
unlock, and you can drive it. And of course you can let go of the life
switch. Beside that pull switch is a toggle switch. It will kill your
taillights, brake lights and turn signals. Comes in handy if someone is
hot on your tail. You are no longer telling them when to brake or slow
down by watching your taillights.”

I was curious why Ricky thought he might need a tank tuff car? “Rick..,
why do you need this kind of car? Damn expensive for a set of wheels.
You could…,”

Ricky shook his head. “I hope we don’t need it. I hope it is a waste of
money. I hope ten years from now you are berating me for buying it. What
I don’t want is to need it and wish I had. Until then, it is wheels not
on the hot sheet and nothing more. Move your gear into the trunk. You
aren’t coming back for the pickup.”

“My tools are in the toolbox. That won’t fit in the trunk.” I opened the
toolbox in the bed of my pickup and took out the rifles we had liberated
from the CIA agents a lifetime ago.

“Leave it.” Ricky turned his attention to Jimmy. “The toolbox and
everything in it belongs to Jessica. Make sure it stays safe and nothing
disappears out of it. If she wants it back tomorrow or fifty years from
now it is hers.”

“As you wish.” Jimmy watched as I put the rifles back into the toolbox.

There was not a whole lot in that toolbox I felt would serve our
purpose. If the toolbox wasn’t going on the auction block and other
people weren’t snooping around in it; then the grenades, rifles, and
flash bangs the CIA donated were nothing more than dead weight. A person
could only carry so much weight. Rifles and ammo were heavy. My AR and
fifty was my limit. I needed a vest and backpack for my extra clips and
ammo. The timer had to come with us. I lifted the tool pouch and clips
out of the toolbox. The canned food I carried in there I tossed into the
bed of the pickup in case it was a really really long time before I came
back.

On second thought. “Ricky, can you shoot?” I was wondering if one of
those rifles would serve Ricky?

“Sure. Pull the trigger, right?” Came from behind me.

I turned to look at a dumb grin on his face. “Have you ever shot a gun
since we were kids?” This didn’t bode well.

“What is there too know? Point it at what you want to kill and pull the
trigger. Okay?” His stupid grin didn’t change.

“Geeks!” I sighed. A high powered assault rifle was the last thing
someone like Ricky needed in their hands. If he figured out how to
release the safety and put it on full auto, anything and everyone around
him would be in mortal danger The rifles stayed in the toolbox. I had a
death wish but not that way.

“I didn’t get the chance to install White Out on the vehicle. Dimitri
hadn’t shipped it yet.” Jimmy was watching as I slid into the driver’s
seat and Ricky got in the passenger seat.

“What?” I couldn’t imagine what Jimmy was talking about.

“Dimitri wanted one of his gadgets installed. I’ll put it on the next
one we build up if it ever comes in.” Jimmy pulled a remote out of his
pocket and the overhead door started lifting.

“Uh, okay. Thanks.” It was the second time I had heard white out
mentioned. Both times seemed to be by people who dealt with Russians.

===============================================================

I had the car out in the street headed east. If we parked at another
motel I didn’t want to be any closer to Fort Worth than we already were.
“What’s the plan?”

I still had Tom’s driver’s license. My pickup was the last thing I
really owned and could sell if things went south. Whether I liked it or
not my life had became dependent on Ricky. I might not be dying from
cancer now. My future was still just as dark if Ricky decided I was dead
weight. I had no idea how to support myself. With no identification I
would be competing with the illegal aliens for bottom wages. The problem
there was they knew how to work the system and I didn’t.

“Find a discount store or super store. I need a throw a way phone.”
Ricky was going through his billfold looking at the identifications
Linda gave to him.

Turning into the first shopping mall I saw, I stopped in front of a
dollar store. “Not high end. I bet they won’t ask questions if they have
disposable phones. No cameras either.”

“If they have phones it’s perfect.” Ricky was in the store less than
five minutes before he came back out carrying a bag.

“Okay, stay put a minute Jess and let me find someone to help.” He
opened up the phone and talked for a few minutes. “Linda, sorry to
bother you again. I need clothes for Jess. Nice, up scale. Uh huh,
okay…, yes…, probably…,”

He was looking at me. “Okay…, Dallas or one of the burbs…, LINDA! She’s
not a hooker. I have known her all her life and I can swear on a stack
of bibles she’s not into that. No she didn’t…, She’s all natural.
Nothing artificial. LINDA…! No I’m not swapping her for you or anyone
else…, Hon I love you too. I strongly suggest you remember those six
men who thought the same thing. No one keeps count. There are probably a
couple hundred more…, No I’m not lying. Okay, you call them and explain
what I want. I want her to look classy, maybe a tad sassy, but not
cheap. A woman who has seen the world and owns it. Okay?

The Liberty Bank credit card I left with Hernandez. Jimmy is going to
pull seventy two thousand out of it. After he gets his money, burn the
card and all traces…., You’re a doll. You know I love you…., Of course
with all my heart but I’m still not trading in Jess…, And Linda, on that
thing earlier. I want her to be a woman from the upper class. Okay.
Bye.”

He pointed to the northeast. “Jump up on 75 and go to Richardson. On
East Main a few blocks from the police station is Marcela’s. The lady
you need to see is Joyce Thurman. Linda is going to arrange for them to
clean you up.”

“Clean me up? What ever for? Ricky, I’m comfortable in pants and jacket.
Is this necessary?” I couldn’t imagine what two people on the run from
damn near every bureau in the US Government would want with a change of
clothes?

“Jess, I need those drives out of that lab in Fort Worth. I’m guessing
they have a dozen cameras looking at that place even if agents aren’t
staked out on it. They would be all over me or Tom in a heart beat if
either one of us got within a mile of it. There is not one single person
in the world I would trust besides you to retrieve those drives. Linda
or any of her cohorts?

They have all the data on the drives already and so does our government.
The energy they are burning up to break the codes would probably light
up a city. I can’t begin to imagine what they would do if they thought
they had the only copies I possessed. There wouldn’t be getting them
back. They would let me have the information piece meal at a time as
they made me build what they believe is the Philadelphia Project.”

Begging me with his eyes he looked at me. “Jess, you could walk up to
the lab the way you are dressed now and it could be a toss up if they
pulled you in or not. If you walk up to that lab looking like a million
dollars they won’t touch you. Image means everything in some situations.
Look like a rancher’s wife and they will probably think they can out
lawyer you and bleed you dry causing you to cough up everything you
know. Look like a billionaires wife and they will be burning down the
lines trying to get an ID on you but they won’t touch you. Sophisticated
society has political and legal connections. All at the touch of a phone
call. They can’t burn you with lawyers because for everyone of theirs
you have two. They can’t pull you in and give you the third degree. It
would be all over front page news before they booked you into jail.”

He smiled. “Class has its perks. Looking like class does the same thing.
It scares the sharks away before they bite.”

Funny... in an odd way I could relate to what Ricky was telling me. When
anyone started looking like they wanted a piece of me all I had to do
was accidentally raise my shirt and expose a gun handle. Fist fights
were one thing some guys wouldn’t hesitate to start. Getting in a gun
fight took it to a whole new level they didn’t want to try.

Dallas traffic was a killer. Making our way across town took forever. It
was an hour later when I finally found the little mall Linda had told
Ricky about.

Ricky pointed at the store with MARCELA'S in gold leaf scroll on the
plate glass. I’m going to find a computer store. I lost a lot of jump
drives in that fire. I’ll be in the store when they are finished with
you.”

“Okay.” I had no idea what was going on. Give me a backhoe and a
construction job I was in my own element. This was a whole new world to
me.

“Jess, play nice and do what they ask. And don’t pull that gun out of
your purse. I know everyone in Texas carries one. That one you carry
will surely get the attention of everybody.” He motioned me toward the
boutique.

I gave him my seriously dead stare. “Ricky, I’m not into shooting
everyone who pisses me off. In your case I’m giving serious
consideration to breaking the rules.”

Ricky was laughing as he turned and walked off in the other direction.

A hour later I walked out looking exactly the same as I had when I
walked in. I had no idea what was going on? I couldn’t imagine Ricky
being in a computer store for an hour. I was wrong as that was where I
found him. I walked up behind him as he was talking to a salesman. “I’m
back.”

The salesman looked up. His eyes grew two sizes as he scoped me out.

Ricky looked at the salesman and a smile spread across his face before
he turned around to look. “Okay.”

“Thanks.” He nodded to the salesman as he picked up a laptop and a bag.
Ricky steered me toward a restaurant inside the mall.

“Now what?” It wasn’t the food I was asking about.

“Time Jess. Everything takes time to unfold at its own pace. Push and
things can go wrong in a hurry. You asking about what the ladies did in
the store?”

“Un huh. I thought I was going to try on a dress. Well I did. Lots of
dresses but all they did was take measurements and notes.”

“I know you haven’t had experience at this girl thing and I’m…”

“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry. I’ll shoot you right here and now. We
are way past that sorry bit. It happened, I got screwed…, I guess we
both did. You lost your lab and a lifetime of work. Back isn’t an option
for either of us at the moment. You don’t have a lab and I can’t step
back into Tom. When retreat isn’t an option there are only two
possibilities. We either hold our position praying for someone to come
and save our asses before we are over run and killed. Or we push up and
out, praying we bust through before enough forces can be rallied in our
path to stop us.”

The tears came unexpectedly. “No one is coming to our rescue. There
isn’t anyone smart enough, intelligent enough to help even if they knew
what happened.”

“Jessica…,” Ricky was reaching for me.

I pushed his hand away. “I’m okay. Let me enjoy my own pity party for a
few minutes. Sometimes it helps to wallow in pity and get disgusted
enough with yourself to climb back up and start fighting again.”

=============================================================

Six days later it was long before dawn. We were sitting in a pasture
with a whole lot of mesquite around us. Ricky scanned the area again
with his binoculars. “Herd of Angus about a half mile to the southwest.
Otherwise I don’t see any thing moving.”

“And you won’t. If there is someone out there watching and wanted us
dead we would already be there. There are only two ways to wait on a
target. You either get there before they do, be still, and wait for them
to show up or you stealth up to the target. The common denominator is
time. If I was staking us out I would have been out there two days ago.
I regret not finding a computer and downloading aerial photos of this
place. Let's pray we both don't die because I got careless.”

Ricky slowly lowered his binoculars and turned to look at me. “You're
joking of course?”

“No joke. The surest way to die is to think you will be safe showing up
an hour or two before the meeting to stake out your position. The longer
the time lead before the meeting the better the odds are in the sniper's
favor.” The fifty wasn’t in my purse it was holstered on my hip. Ricky
and I had stopped by a gun auction a couple days earlier. I had talked
him into carrying a twenty two magnum with a laser sight. It was
something that was lethal, not heavy. It wouldn’t take a lot of skill to
point and shoot.

It was a couple hours later when the sun was up past the horizon. “I
hear a motor in the distance. You can wait by the car if you want. Any
vehicle is a magnet for attention out here in the open like this.”

I pulled the AR out of the backseat and slung it on my shoulder as I
headed out into the mesquite.

A small nondescript gray sedan pulled up and stopped beside the Lincoln.
Watching from a couple hundred yards out, I recognized the legs as the
door opened and they swung out. I waited to see if there were other
people in the car.

She walked over, wrapped her arms around Ricky and gave him a great big
kiss on the lips. Her eyes were dancing as Ricky backed up from her.
“She’s watching isn’t she.”

Ricky nodded. “She is.”

“Am I a painted target or she only have her pistol?” Linda looked past
Ricky to see if she could pick Jess out of the growth.

Ricky rolled his eyes as he shook his head. “We are both being painted
if that is the term for it. She’s good Linda. Damn good. I would put her
up against anyone.”

“Tell her not to shoot me. I want to see if I can pick her out.” Linda
reached back into the car and pulled out a rifle with big ass scope. She
put it on the roof of the car.

At two hundred yards I didn’t have a bit of trouble making out it was a
custom made scope and rifle. Bolt action in the three oh eight range
with a custom six by forty two scope or thereabouts. Nice piece of
hardware. I was betting it would have an accurate kill range up to eight
hundred yards.

Linda took a short telescope out of the car and switched it on. I knew
what it was. There wasn’t any escape. When she swept the landscape
everything with a heat signature was going to show up like a neon
flashing sign. The only way to not show up was to drop down in a foxhole
which I had neglected. I sighted her in and pointed the rifle straight
at her scope. It wasn’t a game of chicken. It was one marksman to
another. You lost. Game over.

She was sweeping the landscape. When she stopped she was looking
straight down the barrel of a rifle. Her eyes were dancing as the
lowered the infrared scope and switched it off. “She is good. Call her
in and let’s pass out some identification. Tell her not to shoot me if
she doesn’t like them.”

Ricky waved me in. “Linda is alone unless there is an invisible man in
the car with her.”

In the Texas drivers license I actually looked good. It was the first
time I had ever seen a picture on a license where I didn’t look like an
escaped convict. I looked for restrictions. There weren’t any. It was a
commercial license and I was qualified to drive anything with wheels. I
was curious. “This pass the highway patrol test?”

Nodding Linda handed me a passport.

“Nice.” Miss Jessica Sarah Rabbit and the picture was quite flattering.
I was wearing a beautiful teal colored dress with matching bolero
jacket. I loved the multi strand diamond necklace and long dangle
earrings. My hair stylishly pulled over my left shoulder. Her photo shop
guys had done a bang up job.

“Norwegian and American dual citizenship. I don’t need to tell you how
hard our team worked to dig up your history. You are one of the
cleanest spooks I have ever run across in this business. Everyone
always shows up someplace sometime even if it is only ghosting. The
guys are going crazy trying to find where you popped up out of the
woodwork. They went overboard in giving you an identity. You are an
heir to the royal blood. Christian Frederick was part of your lineage.
The Norwegian royalty was such a mess no one will ever be able to trace
back whether you really are or not. The important part is, the royalty
slants in your favor rather than against.”

She handed me a folder. “It’s all in there including your ancestry, your
coat of arms, your birthplace and your parents names. I don’t need to
tell you to get to know them. It could save your life. Oh yes, your
parents are alive and they will swear you are their only daughter if
anyone questions them.”

To say I was in shock was an understatement. Could they really fabricate
a life for someone out of thin air? “I hope they know what kind of
daughter I am.”

“To be sure. They have pictures of you and your many romances around the
world all over their home. They love you with all their heart. They wish
you would settle down and marry Olaf Gustaff and stop flitting around
the world like a gadfly.”

“You’re pulling my leg!” I couldn’t believe it.

Linda’s eyes were dancing with laughter. “You should meet him sometime.
He really is quite handsome and who knows. You might decide to marry him
for real.”

“Mar…, marry…” I managed to choke it up.

“You say that like it was a dirty word. Sure, you marry Olaf, I marry
Ricky and we both live happily ever after. Problem solved.” Linda had to
roll in her lips to keep from laughing.

I gave her my you are gonna die stare. “You marry Olaf, I don’t marry
anyone and we are all happy.”

She was laughing as she handed me three credit cards. “Ricky didn’t say
to limit them so they aren’t. Keep in mind before you decide to buy
Monte Carlo, even Ricky has limited funds.”

She handed Ricky a cell phone. “New numbers love. You wore out the old
number. The agency finds me they find you and visa versa. The old number
goes and so do I. I’m flying down to Mexico to look over a burned out
lab. See if I can find anything useful the Federalies haven’t already
picked over. I can feel your government breathing down my neck. It is
time to go. Your new handler is Serena. You met her in Berlin at the
Germany trade show six years ago.”

Ricky was in deep thought for a few seconds. “The kid? She’s only a
kid!”

Linda laughed as she shook her head. “Ricky, she was twenty two when you
met her. She is more than a kid. Serena has a lot of experience. She has
proven several times she can adapt on the fly. Don’t underestimate her
skills.”

Linda turned her attention to me. “Okay Mystery Woman, how about a shoot
off?”

“My AR isn’t that accurate at one hundred yards. At two hundred I’m
working on a four inch pattern. It is an off the shelf weapon.”

She nodded. “Use mine then. We take turns.”

“How far?” I was curious to where it had been scoped in at.

“Right conditions it will be in a twelve inch group at two thousand
meters. Let’s do eight hundred meters. It is a one inch pattern at that
range.”

Ricky was looking at me with a question in his eyes. I pointed at her
rifle still on top of the car.” Linda’s gun was specifically made as a
sniper rifle. Heavy barrel and bolt action so all the energy of the
powder is transferred to the bullet and not wasted kicking out the empty
cartridge. It had to go through several annealings to temper it to the
perfect hardness. The boring was done on a high end laser mill to within
one one thousandth tolerance. She said it can hit a man’s chest at one
mile or put his heart out at a tad under a half mile range. Cost between
twenty to thirty thousand for her rifle. Cheap if one’s life depends on
accuracy.”

Linda lifted the rifle off the roof and handed it to me. “Eight
thousand. It was made in Poland. Better quality than I can get in my
homeland and the price is better.”

I immediately loved the rifle. It felt perfect in my now much smaller
hands. It was designed and made for a woman not a man. Sighting some
cactus pears a quarter of a mile away the optics in the scope were
perfect. The scope alone would have cost six or eight thousand. The
rifle belonged in someone’s hands. It wasn’t a killing machine like my
AR. It was a loving piece of equipment designed to serve a master.
“Nice, very, very nice.”

Linda took a spotter scope out of the back seat.

Now it was my turn to look surprised. A smile spread across her face. “I
was hoping we might get a chance this morning so I was ready.”

I handed the rifle back to her. “You first.”

Linda pointed off out in the distance. “That cactus with the pears on
it. That’s about seven hundred meters.”

I took the scope and found the cactus focusing it in. “Six hundred and
thirty one meters.”

Linda looked the bullets over in the clip before sliding it home in the
rifle. She flipped down the bipod and stretched out on the ground. She
adjusted the distance in on the scope. “The pear on the far left side.”

It wasn’t the cactus I was watching. Linda stopped breathing. Some say
their heart stops beating just before they pull the trigger as their
whole body goes into the zone and they become one with the target. I
would almost believe it as I watched Linda. There was a bark. I looked
and the left pear was gone.

“Linda chambered another round. “One on the far right.”

Seconds later there was another bark. I looked and half the pear on the
right was gone.

In all six shots she never missed. The pear was either completely
vaporized or torn to pieces.

“Damn nice shooting.” I was glad she wasn’t on the other side when I had
been in the field.”

She stood up, brushed the sand off her clothes and handed me the rifle.
“Thanks. Your turn.” She reached into the rifle case and handed me a
clip full of bullets.”

“You didn’t leave anything.” I was only half kidding.

“Cactus two meters to the right and approximately three meters further
out.” She was looking through the spotter scope.

After chambering a round I laid down on the ground and picked out the
cactus. “Top pear in the middle.”

I don’t know if she answered or not. The world ceased to exist, no
sound, no anything besides that one pear that filled my whole vision and
my life. There was no trigger pull. It was smoother than grease on a
board. The bullet raced over an invisible hill in an arc as it sped to
its target. The pear exploded. Five more were dispatched before I stood
up.

Reluctantly I handed the rifle back to Linda. If I had been Tom it
wouldn’t have felt right. As Jess it was the ultimate sniper rifle as
far as I was concerned. I probably was drooling when I gave it up.

Linda wasn’t looking amused as she took the rifle. “Who the hell are
you? You didn’t learn to shoot like that overnight.”

I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t have an answer.

“Are you as good with a pistol?” She retrieved a nine millimeter out of
her purse.

I carried the AR over to the Lincoln and pulled the fifty out of my
holster..

“Damn!” Linda was looking at the Desert Eagle. She pointed to a cactus
about thirty feet away. “One shot and then pick another ten feet past
that and so on until one of us misses.”

She turned slightly to the side, brought the pistol up and took a two
handed hold. There was a bark and a cactus pear had a hole in the
middle. She looked at me waiting.

Two handed hold was what the military tried to teach me. I never liked
it. There was a new problem now. The fifty was ten times as heavy now
than when I was Tom. I couldn’t hold it up that long. I brought it up.
When the sights and the target matched, I squeezed the trigger. A pear
evaporated into a misty cloud.

“Uh…, that is the kind of hole they found in those six men alright.”
Linda took aim on a cactus about forty feet out. A sharp bark and a pear
had a hole off center in it.

I brought the fifty up and another pear on the same cactus evaporated.

Fifty feet out we did the same thing. I was thanking God Linda hadn’t
been with the men in Mexico. It wouldn’t have turned out so well. Ricky
and I both would have been among the dead.

Approximately sixty feet she clipped the pear. She was nearing the
maximum accurate range for her four inch barrel. I dusted another pear.

At close to eighty or ninety feet she hit the cactus but missed the
pear. I was nearing my range now for a small target. Luck was with me. I
evaporated the pear.

Linda turned her full attention on me as she studied me from head to
toe. “You are the best damn spook I have ever met in my life. I have met
some of the best. It won’t happen, but if my government ever pointed me
in your direction I would figure I had two options. Either quit or die.”

I held out my hand for a handshake. “Let’s pray it never happens. You’re
one of the best I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t play nice. There are no
gentlemen or ladies in that situation.”

She took my hand. “Everyone I have ever met in this business, I
remember. I won’t forget you Jessica. You need a job besides guarding
Ricky’s back you give me a call. If my government doesn’t want you I
know several agencies who would kill to have you on their team. But then
you probably know the same people. To say you could walk anywhere in the
world and have a job is understating the fact. The rifle and package is
yours. Ricky didn’t ask but I can tell. If I go back out into the field
I’ll order another one.”

No one ever gave me an expensive gift like that. Much less someone I
really didn’t know. “Linda, I can’t afford it. I’m more broke than a
church mouse. I thank you for the thought though. It was terribly kind.”

“Surely you jest? Ricky isn’t paying you? Hon, I don’t recall asking for
money. It really isn’t that much of a gift. I’ll make it back off Ricky.
He’ll call me wanting a favor and I’ll charge him dearly for it.” She
held the rifle and hard case out in my direction.

Looking around at Ricky he nodded yes. “Take it as a token from one of
the finest ladies you will ever meet in this business. Linda wouldn’t
have offered if she didn’t mean it.”

“I don’t know what to say.” I was holding a rife I never thought I would
ever be able to afford or own.

“Say thanks, is the usual response.” Linda’s eyes were dancing.

“But of course. Many, many thanks. I’ll treasure it forever. If you ever
want it back it’s yours.”

Linda looked me in the eyes. “Don’t send it back bullets first.”

“That is a promise I can keep.” If Linda was ever ordered to kill me I
would never use her rifle against her.

===============================================================

“Pack it up.” Ricky was carrying his suitcase out to the car.

It was eight days after we last saw Linda. The days wore on. They were
beginning to become redundant and monotonous as Ricky and I changed
motels every couple nights. How long can one do nothing? I was starting
to look forward to the challenge of getting into Ricky’s lab. At least I
would be doing something. And maybe, just maybe, Ricky could start
another lab someplace to change Jessica back into Tom.

“Someplace in particular?” It didn’t take long to pick up and follow
Ricky out the door.

“We are going shopping.” He tossed his suitcase in the trunk before he
opened the driver’s door and slid in under the wheel.

My suitcase followed his before I shut the trunk and slid into the
passenger side. “You’re driving? You feel up to it?”

“I want to give it a try. If it hurts anything I’ll quit and let you
chauffeur me again.” He started up the Lincoln and pulled away from the
motel.

It was forty minutes later he pulled up and stopped at the little
shopping mall in Richardson. “I haven’t always had my nose stuck in a
lab building circuits. They will have your dresses ready by now. You
will try them on while the ladies make sure each one is tailored
perfectly for you.”

“But first things first. The beauty parlor.” He pointed to a store
several stores away from Marcela’s.

I was looking at what was obviously women’s territory. “I’m doing this
for the storage drive, right?”

When Ricky didn’t answer I turned to look at him. He had a strange look
on his face. “This is so I can walk in and get that data out of your lab
isn’t it?”

“…yeah…”

“Okay, I can do this. You coming?” I opened the door and slid out while
waiting for an answer.

He shook his head as he started up the car. “I am going to look at some
equipment. You go ahead. I’ll be back before you are finished.”

I took a quick look at the beauty shop and then back at Ricky. “Oh
swell! I’m dumped into a female estrogen environment without any
training wheels and you’re ducking out. Just like a man!”

Ricky closed his eyes and shook his head as he snickered. He got his
giggles under control enough to look up at me. “Promise me you won’t
pull your gun and shoot them if they piss you off.”

“No deal. My fifty is the only vestige of manhood you left me with. I’m
going to use it if I feel a desperate need for a little testosterone
fix.” I didn’t wait for an answer as I turned and headed for the beauty
parlor.

“Jess, your credit cards. Use them to pay for their services.” Followed
me across the sidewalk.

“yeah, yeah. When they turn up empty and I’m hauled off to prison, we
all have a place to call home.” I muttered under my breath.

“May we help you?” The attractive brunette with Brenda on her name tag
looked up when I walked in.

“uh…” I wasn’t sure how to go about this? “I think I need some help.”

“Yes ma’am. Do you have an appointment?” She picked up a ledger off the
counter behind her.

“No. I’m sorry. I…, uh…,” Obviously I should have made an appointment.
How was I to know? I’m new at this girl stuff.

“That is okay. We accept walk ins if you don’t mind waiting. Might be an
hour before we can get to you. What is your name?” She was ready to
write a name in the appointment book.

“uh…, my name…? I…, I’m…? uh…, Jess…” Could I possibly klutz this any
more than I already had?

She was writing. “Jess? You Ms. Rabbit?”

“…uh…, yes…, I am.” Was it Ricky or Linda who called it in? Probably
Linda. Ricky was a guy. He wouldn’t have thought of it any more than I
did.

“I’m sorry Ms. Rabbit. I didn’t mean to keep you waiting. Please?” She
motioned to the chair in front of her.

Looking at the chair I nodded in agreement. “Ma’am, we will get along a
whole lot better if you call me Jess.”

“Okay, Jess. Put your purse under the counter and please take a seat.”

Should I or shouldn’t I? Too many things were screwed up in my life. I
didn’t care what they thought as I pulled the fifty out of my purse
before sliding the purse under the counter. I sit down in the chair and
laid the fifty in my lap.

“Jess, in twelve years no one has tried to rob us. The odds are pretty
good no one will try while you are here for the next hour. Do you want
to hold that gun or put it back in your purse?” She waited holding a
sheet to cover me.

“I’ll hang onto it.” No matter what I wasn’t going to be out of arms
reach of a defensive weapon. I was positive if Linda made the
appointment, her guys were watching. If the CIA or FBI followed her guys
then they would be close by too. If they carried my body to prison it
was going to be cold and dead. My life wasn’t going to be forfeited
easily or come cheap.

“You have the prettiest hair and it is so natural. Do you want it long
or short?”

“Ricky said he liked it long. Let’s leave it at that for now.”

She pulled my hair up and laid my head back over the sink. “Long it is.”

Less than an hour later I stepped out of Wanda's Beauty Parlor. I now
knew what a car felt like after an immaculate detail job. The girls gave
me the total make over. They also lightened Ricky’s credit account by
two hundred and fifty dollars. I hoped he thought it was worth it.

It was time to give Marcela's a call and see what Linda had in mind
there? If it was anything like the beauty parlor Ricky was paying a
chunk of change to get me ready to retrieve his data from the lab.

A couple big, rough looking, guys got out of a car and stepped up on the
sidewalk in front of me as I headed to Marcela's. “Hey bitch. How much
you charge?”

That stopped me cold. “What?”

They walked up in front of me. “Damn fine looking bitch. Not all worn
out like a lot of scabs. Get in the car and we will drive around back.”

“You…, think I’m a prostitute?” I was finally wrapping my mind around
where they were coming from.

“You can claim you ain’t but you can’t deny you’re advertising it bitch.
Now come on and stop playing coy.”

My mind was running a hundred miles an hour. I couldn’t out fight them.
I pretty well knew what this body was or wasn’t capable of. Getting into
a fight with two guys who outweighed me by twice or more wasn’t going to
happen. “And what gave me away?”

“The way you walk bitch. You flaunt it to the world.” He looked down at
my boots with the almost six inch heel.

“So if a girl walks like a girl she’s gotta be a hooker? Is that the
idea?” I was watching his eyes.

“Yeah, but you really swing your ass. Come on. You will want to pay me
for the service after I show you what I got.” He rubbed between his legs
with his left hand as he was reaching for my arm with his right.

I gave him a warm smile. “Sure thing.” As I brought my right foot up and
kicked him in the knee. I heard a satisfying pop. He looked shocked
before he went down falling over into his buddy knocking him off
balance.

His friend stumbled and stupidly still had one thought on his mind. ME!
He was reaching.

I brought the fifty up out of my purse and came down with all my
strength on the top of his right wrist. I had no idea if I broke it or
not. Even if it wasn't broke it would be so bruised it wouldn’t be
working for days afterwards.

“SHIT BITCH!” He was pulling away from me.

I pointed the fifty at his right eye. I knew what looking straight into
the barrel of a gun at close range did to the mind and nerves. “I may be
a bitch but I’m not a prostitute. I ever see either of you again, you
won’t live to tell about it. Gather up your friend and take him to the
hospital. His leg is broken and I imagine so is your wrist. If you have
a gun in that car of yours and you are thinking about using it…, Give it
some thought before you point it at me. Everyone who had that same idea
is past tense. I don’t hesitate and I don’t miss. The only reason you
two idiots aren’t bleeding out on the sidewalk right now is I’m feeling
kind and generous.”

“You fucking whore. You’re gonna pay.” He was glaring at me.

I shook my head. “I’ve seen stupid before. You are moving to the top of
the class. You want the other wrist broken keep running that mouth of
yours making threats. I can turn you and your friend into hamburger
right here if you want a demonstration. I can make you into a
quadriplegic where the rest of your life is sipping soup through a
straw. You want to push your luck?”

He stared at me for six seconds trying to decide whether to challenge me
or not. His friend moaning as he held his leg was the deciding factor.
He helped his friend up and supported him as the guy hopped back to the
car. He tried to open the car door with his right hand and couldn’t. He
turned loose of his friend, opened the door and helped him into the car.

He hesitated.

“Don’t even think it. You come up with a gun and you will be dead before
you get turned around. Take your buddy to the hospital while you still
can.”

He backed up and walked around to the driver’s side empty handed. “I’m
gonna get even. You’re dead bitch.”

I watched him drive off as I slipped the fifty back into my purse. Yeah,
as if I cared. You would be doing me a favor. But you ain’t man enough
to do the job. If he had called me bitch one more time I probably would
have lost it. What was it with guys and their potty mouth language?

It hadn’t escaped my attention there were dozens of people, in the
stores, parking lot, and further away on the sidewalk, stopped to look
and stare. Some had out the cell phones which I imagined were picture
taking. Everyone who was remotely close had backed off when the two guys
approached me and called me bitch and a whore. They either believed it
was true or didn’t want to get involved. If anyone called the police it
was going to get ugly. I wasn’t going to jail and I couldn’t run. I
didn’t have a car. I strolled off down to Marcela's.

Those inside Marcela's who had been looking backed away as I walked in.
Jennie was one of the sales ladies I had met that first visit. She
motioned me toward the back. “Ms. Rabbit your attire is ready for
fitting.”

“It’s Jess.” I headed toward the back of the store as a police car
pulled up into the parking lot.

I saw them out of the corner of my eye. “Jennie, I imagine it is me they
want. I’ll wait on them.”

“Ladies.” Jennie waved several of the ladies over as she walked up
beside me. “We watched the whole thing. It wasn’t your fault. Everyone
of us will swear the two men attacked you.”

Five women crowded around me. Jennie was smiling as her eyes danced. She
pointed to a well dressed woman. “Marsha is an attorney and the wife of
Harold Fortner. He is the attorney for Richardson.”

Marsha nodded in my direction. “The policemen are Rodney Golby and Mike
Patterson. I know them well. This won’t take long. I am dying to see
those dresses you ordered. Jennie has described them to us. She also
described you. I’m sure not a single one of us believed that part until
you walked out of Wanda’s Beauty Parlor. You’re even more beautiful than
Jennie described and she gave you rave reviews.”

I had no idea what to say. I was flattered and embarrassed. I know my
face turned red to match my hair. “Thank you. That was very kind.”

The officers talked to several people on the sidewalk before coming into
Marcela’s. They both homed in on me like bird dogs on point.

Marsha cut them off at the pass before they had a chance to close in.
“Patterson, Golby, good to see our cities finest. You making the
employee picnic next Friday?”

The one with Patterson on his name tag stepped up. “Mrs. Fortner, an
unexpected surprise. We received a call about a woman beating up two
men. The red headed lady beside you matches that description. She needs
to come with us to the station to answer some questions.”

“I’m sorry Mike, Ms. Rabbit is my client. If you have any questions to
ask her you may ask them now. If you believe you have any charges to
press against her you can read them to her now. I and all these ladies
saw the whole thing. Ms. Rabbit was defending herself when two men tried
to engage her. Have the two men filed charges?” Marsha waited for an
answer.

“Marsha…, Mrs Fortner you know they haven’t. We haven’t had time to talk
to them yet. We don’t know where they are.” Patterson was looking less
certain by the second.

“On a story told by a few people who were supposedly watching, you are
claiming my client did or didn’t attack someone or some ones which you
haven’t talked to? These ladies will tell you, Ms. Rabbit was approached
first by two men. Provided you wish to take depositions from those who
supposedly witnessed, but didn’t participate in the alleged attack. Mike
I’ll see you at the employee picnic Friday unless you are buried in
paperwork.”

That wasn't the most subtle hint I had ever heard. She told them to go
find two men and get a sworn statement before they pushed this issue.

Patterson stared at me for a few seconds. “Would you care to fill out a
complaint against the two men you didn’t have a fight with?”

Marsha turned to look waiting for me to respond. “I’m sorry officer. It
was nothing more than a misunderstanding. Words were said that shouldn’t
have been and they left. I’m positive they are wishing they had
apologized before they left. Let’s forget it happened.”

Patterson looked disappointed. I was certain they wanted me in that
police car and down at the station. Filing a complaint would give them
that opportunity.

“Fine then.” They left and minutes later pulled out of the parking lot.

Marsha turned and held out her hand. “As a client you owe me. Make it
legal. Pay me a dollar for representing you as my client.”

“A dollar? I mean are you sure? I appreciate your help but only a
dollar?” I was digging in my purse. I had some change left over when
Ricky gave me cash to buy groceries and things. I wasn’t completely
without money.

She laughed as she waited for her dollar. “If those two men press
charges and it ends in court it will cost you a whole lot more. I’m
expensive but I’m worth it. You can file counter charges if it comes to
that. I promise it would be a waste of money. They didn’t look like the
kind who had money.”

The dresses were exquisite. The soft blue dress draped on my body like
moss on a tree. The daring neckline made me wonder if it was going to
slip down off my breasts. The matching jacket only came to the sides of
my breasts emphasizing them rather than covering anything. The five inch
heels were matching.

“Walk to the front of the store and back so I can make sure the hem and
the dress addresses your figure correctly.” Jennie was urging me out of
the dressing room.

I didn’t think for a second it was to size up the drape of the dress. It
was to give the ladies a chance to look. They stood by me to keep me
from going to jail so they deserved it. I did the walk in the blue
dress, the peach dress, and the red dress. That black dress I was poured
into. I didn’t believe there was enough extra room in that dress for two
fleas to have a fight. The scalloped neckline was cut really low. The
hem was above the knee. I didn’t think that glitter gown I wore that
first time and this black dress were that much different. There was a
lot of sinful exposure with both of them.

Several women and a few men with their wives came into Marcela’s and no
one was leaving. I was wearing the black dress and made the stroll to
the front when I noticed a new red Lincoln pull into the parking lot.
Ricky got out and headed my way. He was dressed in a suit and tie and
looked darn handsome.

I waited as he walked into the store. He carefully looked me over. I
slowly turned around for him. “You like?”

“I do like. You forgot something.” He pulled the diamond necklace,
bracelet, chandelier earrings, and diamond watch out of his pockets.
Ricky didn’t have time to make it back to the plane. He had help. I was
wondering if it was Linda or someone else?

There were several, “ohhhhs” from the ladies as Ricky stepped up, had me
turn my back to him and slipped the necklace around my neck. The diamond
earrings were next and then the bracelet and watch. He slipped a diamond
ring on my left ring finger.

Marsha walked up for a closer look. “You can afford me. I know the real
thing when I see it. You are absolutely stunning Jessica. I have no idea
where you are going this evening. If it isn’t the governors ball they
don’t deserve you.”

Stepping up, I gave her a hug. “Thanks Marsha. I needed that. You have
no idea how much that helps my confidence.”

She backed up and held my hands. “I want you and your boyfriend to come
to the picnic Friday as my guests.”

I figured Ricky and I would be in that plane of his high tailing it
after I picked up his files. I shook my head. “I’m not going to say no
but I’m not saying yes either. Our schedule is pretty tight.”

“I understand. Come if you get a chance. If not Friday then you might
consider making one of our social parties next month?”

“We will have to wait and see.” I was positive I wasn’t making any
social parties. A month from now I wanted Ricky working to rebuild a lab
so I could become Tom.

=============================================================

Okay I blame my lack of forethought on not having girl experience. If
all we were going to do was dress up, pick up the data, and run for our
lives why would I need four exquisite dresses and accessories? One
dress, one make over, one lab data grab, and run. Right? The other thing
that got lost was, Ricky didn’t have time to drive back to the plane. I
was missing the small important things as I focused on the lab. For
those in what was my former job, missing details always ended up badly
if not deadly.

Jennie ran one of those credit cards Linda gave to me. Linda said not to
buy Monte Carlo. Looking at the total for the dresses and accessories I
think I did. I was positive Ricky and I were going to be fleeing for a
second reason. Credit card fraud came up in my mind. If Ricky and I were
lucky we would be long gone before that credit card bounced back as
worthless. I was not looking forward to spending the rest of my life in
a woman’s prison.

Ricky was headed back toward Dallas. I was thinking of what I was going
to do if anyone showed up while I was breaking into or coming out of
the lab. “Where did you get the car?”

He pulled up on the interstate. “I borrowed it. You look damn nice Jess.
Thanks for not pulling that gun of yours and shooting me for doing this
to you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. It is still on my mind. How quick do you think we
can be in and out of that lab? You shouldn’t park too close or this car
will show up on the cameras and it isn’t an easy car to hide in
traffic.”

He glanced in my direction. “The plan for getting into the lab is still
developing. I’m waiting on some equipment from Sergie. It will be a week
or two before it arrives.”

“A week or two? Then what is all this for?” I motioned down the front of
me to the black dress. “I’m not going to be able to redo the makeup
tricks by myself in a week or two. This was a waste of time and money if
I’m supposed to be wow as I walk into that lab.

Ricky shook his head and chuckled. “Jess, when the time comes you can go
back to a beauty parlor and have them spruce you up again. In the mean
time you need to learn to look and act like the princess your birth
certificate and passport claims you are.”

“Oh swell! This sounds like so damn much fun. I can’t wait to get
started.” I responded in my most snarky voice as I glared daggers at
him.

“Well then while your enthusiasm is overflowing why don’t we start now.
Drop the cuss words and the attitude. Neither one will gain you a place
in the social circle. Do you remember who your parents are and what your
claim to royal lineage is?” He pointed to a folder on the floorboard
under my feet.

“But of course. My daddy was a handsome frog prince and my mother was a
beautiful frog princess. I was their only loving daughter. I’m going to
turn back into a frog any minute now.” I stuck my nose up in the air as
I gave him my disdainful look.

“Nice, very very nice your highness. If you feel like frog coming on,
come to me and I will give you my magical kiss making sure you don’t
turn back.” He was smiling from ear to ear.

“Yuck! I’ve already experienced one of your kisses and this is what
happened.” I waved my hands down in front of my body. “Don’t expect me
to come back for seconds.”

“Oh by the way, my favorite outlaw buddy. Have you forgot yours and my
pictures and our names are probably plastered in every law office and
post office in the country? I’m positive my disguise would keep me from
being instantly recognized but you aren’t as cleverly camouflaged. Do
you honestly believe it is wise to keep running around in the lion’s
den?

There are a million of those government guys. It would surprise me if
they haven’t already located your plane. If they have they will have
Dallas swarming with agents trying to sniff us out. They will also put
men out to watch on that lab with their eyes.” I waited for that to sink
in. I was positive we should make a grab for the data files and flee if
it wasn’t already too late.

Ricky headed toward down town Dallas on the interstate. “The plane was
moved and renumbered by my Russian friends. In case you weren’t
listening to Linda it is supposedly now a diplomatic plane. It was moved
to Sycamore Strip Airport in Fort Worth. I’m not going to be running any
road races if you are right and the Feds are watching the lab. We head
straight to the airport from the lab, which is only a couple miles, and
go.”

“Jess, if I honestly thought we couldn’t pull this off without getting
caught we wouldn’t do it. The Feds are good at what they do. I’m better
than good at what I do. I wish…”

“You say you’re sorry and I’ll shoot you right here. It happened. You
didn’t mean for it to turn out this way. I didn’t either. You didn’t
toss me in the ditch and forget me. Friends don’t leave friends even if
their life is on the line. We adjust when our plan goes off the charts
and make do.”

I looked out the window and shook my head. “A couple of weeks huh? I’ll
shoot you later. Possibly when we are in the air. That plane can fly
itself. I’ll tell it where I want to go after I toss your body out the
window.”

Ricky curled up the corner of his mouth as he chuckled. “That’s a plan I
can accept. Jess I have tickets for the live performance at the Music
Hall. We are going to dine at Ricardo’s and then go to the theater.
Please don’t order more than one drink.”

“I’m not sure what happened in Mexico. You could have told me that fruit
drink was loaded. I’m not touching alcohol again until I find out what
my tolerance is. I vaguely remember making a fool of myself. What I
don’t remember is when it started. I’ll stick to water or Coke or
something.”

Ricky and I received more than our fair share of admiring looks during
the evening. I was turning into a ham. I liked it. Being admired for
more than my skills at operating a piece of heavy equipment was a new
experience for me. The rodeo queen Tracy, was the only girl who didn’t
look doubtful when I told her what I did for a living. It was late when
Ricky and I were headed back to where ever we were camping for the
night. When he pulled into the driveway of a home in an upscale
neighborhood I was doubting his ability to understand how doggedly our
government would be in trying to find him. The older Lincoln was parked
in the driveway. He drove the red Lincoln into the garage after the door
raised up.

I slid my hand down inside my purse and clutched the fifty. “Ricky, if
you knew the people who live here or had any contact with them in the
past. Or even if they are friends of friends then you can bet your last
lucky dime the government bird dogs know them too. Let’s start adding up
the numbers. If they found your plane they probably have a good idea you
are back in Dallas. They will pull in extra agents to beat the bushes
even if they have already done it the day before. I don’t have to
imagine how scared they are if they believe you completed the
Philadelphia Project and that was your project down in Mexico. If Linda
and the Russians know about the Mexican lab there isn’t a government
agency in the world who doesn’t know it also.”

“Linda gave you three official options from her government. You can go
to work for the Russians or you can stay out of the clutches of our own
government. If either of those first two options are breached then the
third option automatically kicks in. They will do everything in their
power to kill you.”

“Ricky, as much as you think of Linda and as much as she thinks of you,
her government will use that against you if it comes down to it. They
will send Linda in to kill you because she knows you so well. I will be
her primary target. To get to you she has to go through me. We will lose
the game. A sniper can pick the time and the place. There isn’t anyway
the target can prepare for something like that.”

Ricky had focused his attention on me while I was giving my spiel. “You
through?”

He held up his hand when I started to speak. “My turn. I don’t have your
experience. You don’t have mine. I’ve been dealing with some government
agency sticking their nose into my business and my life long before I
quit Dynamic Locks. Nothing life threatening, but more like a game of
cat and mouse. They wanted to know my every move, know all my friends,
and dictate my life. It was a real learning curve for me. Because of the
technology I dealt with, I no longer had a life of my own. They kept me
on a leash.”

Ricky sighed as he shook his head. “I learned our government doesn’t
belong to the people, but we belong to the government. I also learned a
lot of tricks for losing the watchers. Don’t go to friends or people
you’ve met. Don’t have a routine or become a creature of habit. Become
paranoid about everyone and everything because most of it is probably
true. Have the feeling you’re being followed? Probably are. Have the
feeling your phone, your car, your apartment has been bugged? They
probably have.”

“This house and car are leased. I didn’t go through any of my old
Russian contacts, any old friends, or any business associates. My new
handler, Serena set it up for us. Mr. Ricky Ronald Chavenski a
diplomatic aid to a very well known and respected princess leased the
house and car while she is staying in the area for a short time. All
done on the QT and of course no paper trail. The agency didn’t even
request up front money. There were inquiries made about the authenticity
of said royalty which no doubt alerted our old Russian friends as to the
purpose. Unless Sergie has a leak we will be safe for awhile. I’m
betting Linda is reading the report and laughing knowing she was part of
the charade.”

He opened his car door and stood up. “We don’t have to accept the
Russians as our friends. You’re right. They would kill us in a heartbeat
if they thought I was going to fall into US government hands. At some
point they might think killing us would be better than spending money
watching us. Our own government would do the same thing if they knew
where we were and thought I was dealing with the Russians or any other
foreign government.

The only thing keeping us alive is, both sides believe I have built the
Philadelphia Project. I’m positive the lab in Mexico was the icing on
the cake for both governments. The other thing you are right about is,
if Linda knew about Mexico then our own government also knows. I'm
betting some heads rolled after they found the lab. Supposedly I was on
a short leash when I built a lab they didn't know about. Letting
something like that happen on one's watch isn't a career builder.”

He motioned me to follow as he opened the garage door leading into the
house. “Jess, I don’t speak fluent Russian and I’m not crazy about
moving there. My Russian friends don’t have infinite patience. In time
when they realize I haven’t built the Philadelphia Project and have no
concept of how to make it happen, they will turn on me. We can go to any
country in the world but we can’t hide from the Russians and US
Government both. The equipment and parts I need to rebuild the capsule
are not off the shelf items. After the respective governments went
though that lab in Mexico they will be bird dogging the manufacturers
for anyone ordering like parts and materials.”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “You mean you can’t rebuild the lab?”

Ricky shook his head. “That isn’t what I said. I said both governments
will be following the parts trail. I will have to get in bed with one or
the other to get those parts. The Russians will give me free reign. Our
government will put me on a very short leash with a guard looking over
my shoulder every second of the day. I can get the parts to rebuild my
lab but they will have to be routed through the Russians to keep our
government from knowing where I…, we are.”

Inside the house Ricky pointed down a hallway. “There are three
bedrooms. Take your pick. Your rough and tough stuff is still in the
Lincoln. I didn’t have a chance to bring our vagabond clothes in. I was
running really short on time this afternoon before I picked you up at
Marcela’s. The master bedroom has an attached bath. You can have that
one if you like. Tomorrow we will go clothes shopping. You can’t keep
sleeping in the buff. Even if you are okay with it, I’m not.”

I was looking down the hall and that got my attention. I turned to look
at Ricky. “Just what do you mean by that?”

“Jess, you might be my best friend but as of now you are a woman. We
don’t go skinny dipping in the crick like we did when we were kids. You
have got to start thinking like a woman. The number one rule besides all
those other rules about staying out of the government’s hands and
staying alive is…, You no longer run through the room naked.

Apologies and a million sorrys later isn’t going to change the fact I
screwed up and you are paying for my mistake. You’re a woman, I’m a guy.
The longer this mess goes along the less I think of you as Tom and the
more I think of you as Jessica.”

He pointed at my purse. “If you want to shoot me now I won’t blame you.
The only thing I ask is don’t make me suffer for the wrong I did. Make
it a quick kill shot.”

I shook my head as an evil grin spread across my face at what I was
thinking. “Sorry, you’re out of luck if you expect me to end your misery
this soon. You’re going to have to suffer through this the same as me.
Shooting you now would be an act of kindness. Right now I don’t have a
single drop of kindness in my…, this female body. I may not be a woman
scorned but you will figure out what a woman’s wrath is before you
change me back. You’re gonna pay and pay and pay and…”

I headed off down the hall. “I gotta figure out the girl necessities. My
mother never taught me all the things girls should know about applying
makeup and what to do before bed. Or all them other things girls learn
growing up. Are you sure running though the house stark naked is a no
no? Ricky sweetheart dearest?”

Ricky closed his eyes and shook his head as he watched Jess walk into
the master bedroom and close the door behind her. Payback had already
started. He was positive Jess was going to drive it home before she was
satisfied she had evened the score.

=============================================================

The days slowly crawled by and turned into weeks. Ricky seemed to have a
schedule of him and me making the rounds of the social set every
evening. I was betting Serena and Linda were behind the planning unless
Ricky had changed over the years. Ricky had his nose stuck into circuits
and schematics building that machine of his for too many years for him
to be a social swinger. My pictures as a Norwegian princess were popping
up in the society pages as the weeks rolled by. By design or luck Ricky
always seemed to be able to stay out of range when someone wanted to
take my picture. I kinda guessed some of it was do to the information
put out that Ricky was a diplomatic aide rather than a boyfriend or
lover. The photo hounds probably weren't that interested in taking
pictures of someone who was no more than an aide.

We were at the breakfast table. I had opened the Dallas Morning News to
the society page and was looking at me. I pointed to the picture.
“Ricky, is there a purpose to this? There have been too many of these
lately to be a coincidence.”

He looked at the picture after taking a drink of his orange juice.
“You're very photogenic. Nice picture.”

“Not what I asked. This is more than circumstance. Give.” I slid the
paper over in front of his plate.

“Well..., a meeting of the minds decided the best way to keep you off
the radar of the government acronyms was to make you so visible you
would be invisible.” He folded the paper so my picture was all that was
on top.

“Oh just great! When we pick up your data and my face is splashed all
over their cameras focused on your lab they will know exactly who they
are looking for. Nice move there Mister. And after that my picture will
be with an orange jumpsuit and leg shackles.” I couldn't believe Ricky
would out me to the world like this.

“Plans are developing Jess. If I thought there was any risk to you we
would abandon the lab and forget the whole thing. The data banks aren't
worth you going to prison. Linda and Serena know I want the data out of
that lab. You can bet your last lucky dime Dimitri knows along with the
rest of the Russian intelligence team. They are waiting to see how this
works out.

They have the same encrypted data as does the CIA. They wouldn't hand it
over without making sure they were in on the next build. Thus we have
all the alphabet soup names of our own government waiting the
information along with the Russians. It got twice as complicated as it
was when we first returned but it couldn't be helped.

You needed an identity, I needed a new identity and funds. At the time I
thought I needed to heal up before we made a run at the lab. It was an
error in judgment on my part. I wish now we had picked up the data, got
back into that plane, and left the country.”

“Where do we go from here?” I was curious as to what his plans were now?

Ricky took a deep breath. “White Out is supposed to be delivered today.
I need to test it to make sure we aren't left hanging out to dry and it
covers all signals. I trust our Russian friends up to a point but I
don't trust my life to them any more than I'd trust our own government.”

There was that white out thing again. “I take it this is something you
sold the Russians and they are loaning it back?”

Ricky shrugged his shoulders. “Not a thing Jess but an application. It
blanks out all electronics within a specific radius. Television, radio,
phone, wireless signals and even most equipment that is directly wired
if it hasn't been shielded. When you walk into court rooms, hospitals,
or government offices there are dead zones in them where cell phones no
longer work. That was the premise behind White Out. It goes several
steps further. It blanks all electronics.”

“I'm guessing you think it may work on the monitors around your lab? If
that is the idea then why am I still dressing up? If they can't see me
then jeans and a denim jacket would work.” I couldn't help but think
Ricky had wasted time and money on trying to turn me from a toad into
something halfway presentable as a debutant.

“By the way. Since it comes to my mind. How long before the bill
collectors start pounding on the door wanting to be paid? You have been
shelling out some damn serious coins from the time we returned to
Dallas. I figure I better find a job before you need to sell your plane
and car to pay the bills.”

Ricky laughed as he shook his head. “We sell the plane and we might as
well give up to the goons. It is our ticket out of here once we get the
information I need. I'm not sharing a whole lot of information with you
Jess. It isn't because I don't trust you. I trust you with my life. But
the fact is the less you know the less likely you will be harmed if
anything goes wrong.

Let me play the devils advocate. Say they did manage to get their hands
on you. What can you tell them besides there was a lab in Mexico and it
wasn't the Philadelphia Project? The White Out? They already have a good
idea there is a system out there that is screwing with their electronics
from time to time. So you tell them I designed it which is irrelevant.
They are already pissed off at me. The idea I sold years of hard work to
the Russians rather than give it to our government is not going to keep
me awake at night.”

He gave me a wink. “I have money Jess. I was paid very well for several
projects I designed. I invested it in a lot of companies around the
world. China, Russia, Israel, Canada, Brazil, and the US are a few of
the places where my money is working. You don't need to worry about the
bill collectors. It was only after we lost the lab in Mexico I realized
I should have diversified my identity. Linda pulled my chestnuts out of
the fire on that one. From now on you and I will have three different
identities in case we ever end up in that type of situation again. I
trust Linda, Dimitri not so much.”

He pushed the paper back over in my direction. “Marsha and her husband
Harold Fortner are holding a party Friday night. She is the lady you met
at the beauty parlor three weeks ago. Since your picture has been
showing up on the society page Mrs. Fortner wants you to come to her
party as a favor to her. It's a social thing Jess. People in the upper
class like to discuss or brag about the people they know on a first name
basis. The general public has their movie stars. These people have
royalty as friends.”

He smiled. “While you are socializing see what you can learn if there
are any rumors about the government watching a certain part of town.
Don't get specific about an address nor push the conversation in that
direction. Be discreet.”

I shook my head. “You know me. I'm about as discreet as a sledge hammer.
I'll try is all I can promise. What am I supposed to do at some social
party? You know I don't have any idea how to act around women in that
respect. You think they are going to be interested in how to field strip
an M Sixteen or how to lay out the string lines for a foundation?”

Ricky laughed as he looked me in the eye. “That would probably get their
attention. Linda is going as your aide. Since she is no longer my
handler it won't draw any undue attention to her from her Russian
bosses. She can help guide you through the evening as necessary.”

That shocked me. “I thought she went back home after making a stop at
the lab in Mexico?”

He rose up from the table. “She did and now she's back. She came back on
her own this time. She wasn't sent back. I think you impressed her. She
probably wants to know where you came from? Linda is very methodical in
her work. She crosses all the T's and dots all the I's and leaves no
unexplained or unexpected behind. You popped up on her radar from
nowhere. She's going to put some time in finding out where you came from
and who you worked with before you and I joined up. She will be subtle
about it but expect a full court press from her.”

“And if she finds out?” I couldn't believe Ricky would invite her to get
this close to us if that was her intentions.

He shrugged his shoulders. “I didn't answer her when she asked me about
the lab in Mexico. She knows it wasn't the Philadelphia Project. A non
answer is as good as an answer when she has to report to Dimitri. If she
figures out what we really were doing in Mexico then what she does with
that information will be up to her.”

He turned and was headed for the garage. “Don't ever lie to her. She
will never trust you again. If she asks a question you don't want to
answer then don't. She can ask, it doesn't mean you have to answer.”

===============================================================

It didn't take much prodding from Ricky to get me headed back over to
the beauty parlor. I was learning but I wasn't an expert in the makeup
department. I guess I was finally learning to walk and act like a woman
because no one hassled me on the walk from Wanda's Beauty Parlor to
Marcela's Boutique. Or maybe there were a few there who remembered the
first time I made that walk? Who knows?

Jennie the lady who had waited on me the first time met me as I walked
into Marcela's. “Miss Rabbit it is good to see you again.”

“I thought we cleared this up last time. It is Jess. Good to see you too
Jennie. I'm supposed to go to Marsha's party Friday night. Ricky said a
dress had been ordered for the occasion.” I smiled as I gave her a wink.

She laughed. “Jess it is then. Yes we have the dress. Try it on for me
if you will to make sure it accents your figure properly. Although I
can't imagine any dress not doing so.”

It was my turn to laugh as I knew exactly what this body had been
designed for in Ricky's mind. At first I hated him for putting so much
wow into his design. Over the past few weeks I started to appreciate
just how much this body could easily manipulate men. When I was a guy I
should have realized beautiful women almost automatically own men's
minds. The rodeo queen Tracy captured mine. Like all men I didn't have
a clue at the time when it happened. I was too infatuated with her
beauty and her charm. My mind didn't believe at the time that someone
like her would even talk to someone like me. For the past few weeks I
had been studying the interactions between men and women and between
women themselves.

All the things girls learned by instinct as they grow from adolescence
into adults I was experiencing in weeks. I was on a serious learning
curve. And from the price of that gown for Marsha’s party Jennie had me
try on at Marcela's, Ricky was on a serious money drain train. I hoped
Ricky's plans worked out for retrieving the data drives. It was costing
him a ton of money the way we were going at it.

Ricky and the red Lincoln were gone when I got back home. I was slowly
learning another thing about a woman's life. A woman's work is never
done. I washed the dishes, made the beds, vacuumed the carpets. The
clothes were a different matter.

Those Ricky and I had been wearing weren't the kind that goes into the
washing machine. They go to the cleaners. I sighed as I headed for the
laundry room with a handful of underclothes and socks. I yearned for the
days when it was jeans and denim shirts as the style of the day. As I
was hand washing nylons in the laundry sink I begin thinking this
Scandinavian princess stuff really sucked. It was about that time I
decided enough was enough. I headed for the bedroom and a change of
clothes.
================================================================

“Ma'am you need some help with that?” He was giving me the once over
several times over.

“I'll manage. What's your furtherest range?” I rolled the pistol belt up
on my left shoulder before I set the rifle case on the bench between us.

“Uh.., four hundred yards here. The targets can be set at any distance
you want. If this is your first time you might want to try fifty yards
for your rifle and ten yards for your pistol. Are you sure you want to
shoot that pistol? That's a damn big gun for a woman. Your husband or
boyfriend send you out here with that? That will probably hurt you.” He
gave me his pathetic 'girls can't shoot' look.

“I'll try and manage if it's okay with you. Set me up two targets. One
at fifty yards...”

“For the rifle of course.” He finished my sentence for me.

“And another at four hundred yards. Think you can manage that?” His
condescending attitude was driving my desire to put some holes
downrange.

He snickered. “uh..., but of course. I'll have one of the guys run those
targets out for you.”

“Thank you. Which booth do I get?” I looked at a dozen shooters boxes.
Eight of them were already occupied.

He handed me a tag from the pegboard beside his left hand. “Maybe number
seven will be your lucky number.”

I took the tag before I picked up my rifle case. I adjusted my purse
strap on my right shoulder and my gun belt on my left shoulder. I didn't
remember things being this complicated when I was a guy. I headed for
the booth determined to not look like a chick in distress with this much
gear.

As I laid everything on the bench and settled into the seat I was
seriously considering heading home and shooting Ricky for changing me
into this female hell. Way down range a target stood up. The gun guys
were going to make me realize I could never hit anything at four hundred
yards and I should have stuck with the fifty yard target.

Bite me! I unlocked the gun case and lifted the 308 out. The bipod
snapped onto the barrel. I took a clip out of a case and checked to make
sure all the noses were clean. Any kind of contamination can drag a
bullet off its target at that range.

“May I?”

I looked up to my right. A rugged looking character about two forty and
about sixty five years old was standing there with a monsterous spotter
scope.

Nodding to the spotter's bench beside me I shrugged. “Help yourself.”

“Thanks.” He settle in and adjusted his scope. “Their range isn't
perfect. You can't feel it sitting here but you have a ten mile an hour
wind coming from your left to your right. They didn't get the field
level when they graded this place for a range. There is a fourteen inch
rise from here to that target you are looking at.”

Now it was my turn to take a good look at the guy. “Thanks.”

He smiled back. “For most people that information wouldn't mean
anything. That rifle you unpacked tells me you ain't most people.”

Sliding on my ear protection and shooters glasses, I checked to make
sure he had on his. “Let's see if you're right.” I slid the lens covers
off the scope and focused in on the target. “We're going hot.” There was
a loud bark.

“Lower right hand corner. Just outside the bulls eye.” He raised away
from his scope and looked at me.

“K. Again.” I racked a bullet into the chamber. There was another loud
bark.

“Dead center.” His eyes were dancing as he looked at me.'

“Again.” Another bullet into the chamber and another loud bark.

“You made the center hole a little wider.”

I put twelve bullets down range before I quit. “I'm getting sloppy.”

“Yeah, that last one almost didn't make it through the same hole. You
cut the heart out of that bulls eye.” That's the damnest shooting I have
ever seen in my entire life.

Pointing to the clips still in the case I looked him over. “You want to
try?”

He shook his head. “Thanks but I'm not going to try and impress anyone
with my talents after what I just witnessed.”

Finally! I was starting to feel not so..., so damn female hopeless after
the big guy's compliments. Hearing voices behind me I turned around to
look. There were eight men crowded around staring at me or the rifle.
Most of them had a look of disbelief as they talked among themselves.

I was starting to doubt my reason for this testosterone test. I wanted
to vent my frustrations, not tell the gun set I could shoot.

Keying the intercom I looked over toward the guy in the booth. “I’m
through with the rifle. Have them set up the fifty yard target please.”

Downrange the target disappeared and the fifty yard target rose up. Do I
or don't I? Ahh what the hell. I wasn't coming back. I didn't give that
guy at the check in station the name I was using.

I stood up and pulled the fifty from the holster. Before I could bring
it up I heard someone behind me. “Oh shit.”

“Going hot.” I put seven bullets down range. The clip was empty and my
wrist hurt. It took a long time to reacquire my target after each shot.

“I'm through.” I didn't enjoy that like I use to or thought I would.
That shoot off with Linda was still fun. This wasn't. The fifty was too
big of a gun for me now. I needed something smaller with less recoil.
Using this gun if I missed that first shot it would take too long to
send another bullet after the first. Ricky and I were damn lucky at that
lab of his I hadn't missed.

The big guy shook his head as he stood up and snapped the caps closed on
his spotter scope. “I can cover all the holes with a dollar bill. How's
your wrist?”

“Bruised.” It wasn't hurting yet but it would pretty soon. I wanted to
get home and soak it in hot water and Epsom salts before it started
swelling.

He nodded in agreement. “I can understand why. I'm not going to pretend
to understand why you want to carry that thing. I saw something today
I'll be telling my grandkids until the day I die. Appreciate you letting
me watch.”

I held out my hand. “Thanks for spotting for me. It was kind of you.”

He took my hand and shook it. “I'd like to help you carry your gear back
out to your car if you will let me.”

“uh...,” It was a kind offer but was he wanting to read my car tag? “I
think I can manage.”

I thought I could but when it was time to pick up that rifle case I
couldn't do it after what the fifty had done to my right wrist. I was
klutzing it.

He watched me as I picked it up and set it down twice before he reached
over and hefted it. “Yeah. I'll help.”

Things were packed into the trunk of the car when he held out his hand.
“It was a privilege.”

I took his hand. “Thanks. I really did need some help. That fifty worked
me over.”

He grinned and nodded. “It's not the first time you shot that monster or
you wouldn't have been knocking them down like that. Take my advice for
what it's worth. I wouldn't punish my body like that if I were you. The
308 you did okay with. The fifty..., you did okay with it too. Was it
worth it? Buffalo are gone. What do you need a fifty for in this day and
age? I have a collection of sorts that might work for you. I'm thinking
FN five seven would be one of them.”

He pulled a card from his pocket and held it out to me. “Call me if you
would like to see what I have. Bring your husband, boyfriend or
girlfriend if you feel the need to have them look too.”

I took his card. “Thanks.”

I was in the kitchen soaking my wrist in a dishpan full of hot water and
Epsom salts. The fifty was in a dozen pieces scattered across the table
on a towel. I had cleaned it but not reassembled it. The rifle was
across the table still needing to be cleaned when I heard the garage
door open. I picked up the rifle, racked one into the chamber, and
waited.

Ricky walked in. His eyebrows went up as he looked from me to the table.
“You giving your toys a bath now?”

I opened the bolt and laid the rifle down before I put my hand back into
the water. “Just cleaning them.”

“What did you do Jess? Do I need to look for dead bodies in the back
yard?” He was looking out the patio doors toward the back.

I had to laugh over that one. “Not yet. I went out to a gun range to
work out a little of my frustrations. Ricky, the fifty is too big and
too heavy. I don't feel like carrying that much iron in my purse any
more. It takes too long to bring it around and get it into position for
defense. I don't have the muscles I had when I was Tom working
construction. I am deluding myself thinking things can stay the same
until you bring Tom back. I'm not giving up my defensive weapons though.
If anything I need one now more than I ever did before. I'm going to
pick up something light, powerful, but not as heavy or have as much kick
as the fifty if your finances can stand it.”

Picking up the fifty frame I started reassembling it. “I love the fifty
because it scares the fight out of anyone as soon as I pull it. It has
deadly serious stamped all over it. Even those with drug or alcohol
brain damage know not to challenge it. It is a put down weapon. One
bullet and the target is down no matter if they have a vest or not.”

Ricky nodded in agreement as he watched me put the Eagle back together.
“But…, it isn’t a ladies gun. Find something more agreeable Jess. We can
afford it. You have something in mind?”

Holding the fifty in my hands I felt like I was betraying a friend. It
had served me well as Tom and even saved my life as Jessica. I think so.
A guy mentioned a FN five seven. Doesn’t have the kick or the knock down
of the fifty. I can get armor piercing bullets that have the same or
even more penetration than the fifty even though they are illegal. I’ll
have to make sure each one hits a vital spot if it comes to that.”

Ricky pulled his cell phone. “Linda knows her guns. Why don’t I let her
find one for you? No name, no registration, and how many of them bullets
did you think you might want?”

Reaching over I closed up his phone before he had a chance to make the
call. “Don’t make any calls from this location unless it is necessary. I
may be paranoid but I’m beginning to get that same feeling Linda said
she had. I feel the feds breathing down our necks. They get their hands
on us and it is all over. I don’t know if the government guys place you
and Linda together or not. If they have, they will scrutinize anyone she
gets close to.”

Ricky nodded as he slid his phone back into his pocket. “Good advice
even though Linda is no longer Linda. I need to stop referring to her as
Linda. She is Maria Martinez, from Brazil now.”

That stopped me cold. “Say what!”

Ricky chuckled. “Linda has used three different names since I first met
her. I have no idea what her real name is. In her line of work it is a
benefit to have one’s own government behind them. Makes it easy to
change identities. Even if our government had a double agent in Russia
it would be hard to keep up with the Russian agents identities. I’m
betting Linda…, Maria’s new identity came straight out of Brazil rather
than some Russian agency.”

He turned and was headed out the door. “Don’t think about it too much
Jess. It will give you a headache trying to keep up with what the
Russian and American spy spooks do now days.”

==============================================================

Later is always too late to be wishing we had done something different.
Something didn’t feel right after I made the trip to Wanda’s Beauty
Parlor Friday evening.

When I walked out of her salon my gut feeling I was being watched went
off the charts. Not the usual kind of looks from people but the kind
that says you’re being painted. My hand went inside my purse to the
fifty. I didn’t pull it out in the open. I took a quick step to my right
away from Ricky’s red Lincoln like I was going to walk to Marcela’s for
the gown. I was wishing I had drove the bullet proof car. He had parked
his red Lincoln behind the other car so when it was time to go I drove
this one.

Then I spun on my heel and stepped up beside the car keeping my head
down below the roof line. I checked the parking lot on the side of the
car I was on, looking for someone or something out of place. I was
thinking about the two guys who had hassled me weeks earlier wondering
if they had come back to finish the job?

A car with a high performance engine started up behind me on the other
side of the parking lot. Taking a quick glance over the roof of the
Lincoln I saw a black sedan with heavy tinted windows turning my way.
The passenger windows were half way down. I had no doubt this was a car
full of friends of the six dead people we had left behind in Mexico.
Drug dealers have resources our own law can only dream about. They don’t
have any restrictions about being legal since everything they do is
illegal. I was betting I showed up in someone’s pictures that fateful
night. Maybe they even found the doctor I had taken Ricky to? It didn’t
take a genius to figure out Ricky and the bimbo he was with that night
disappeared supposedly in a US registered airplane. Was every red headed
bimbo now on their death list or…?

The beauty parlor was going to be in the line of fire. Brenda was still
by the counter watching as I crouched beside the car. I lifted the fifty
out of my purse and waved it at her motioning for her to get back and
down. Texas must have smarter people than most because she turned and
was screaming and waving for everyone to get back and down as she hit
the floor.

As the front of the black sedan slowly pulled past the rear of the
Lincoln I eased around to the front of the Lincoln. Gun barrels were
sticking out the windows. They expected to find me crouched down beside
the car. They opened up with their automatics shredding the Lincoln’s
driver’s side and all the windows. The black sedan leapt forward with
the rear tires burning rubber and the shooting stopped.

I should have let them go. It wasn’t part of my training. I stood up and
put a round through the rear passengers side window while it was still
down. The angle of the shot was perfect. The driver’s blood was
splattered all over the inside of the car. The car swerved and crashed
into a parked car. The two on my side opened their doors and bailed. The
one that had been in front was bringing his rifle up when he was slammed
back up against the door and dropped with a fifty slug in him. The one
that had been in back was trying to make it around behind the car. He
didn’t make it. The fourth man that had been sitting behind the driver
rose up over the trunk of the car with his rifle pointed up in the air
ahead of him. He was bringing the rifle down to take aim in my
direction. It was his last mistake.

Looking at the red Lincoln I hoped Ricky was telling the truth when he
said it was a lease. All the windows were gone. From the tail light to
the front bumper that whole side of the car looked like a cheese grater.
That wasn’t counting the two flat tires. I wasn’t going to be driving it
home. Now what? This whole mess was going to lead the police straight to
our doorstep. That identity Linda set up for me better be bullet proof
or it was going to be curtains for Ricky and me if the feds got
involved.

Looking back at the beauty shop, the women were slowly starting to get
up off the floor as they stared at me. There wasn’t any glass left
anyplace in the front of the store. Several of the mirrors inside were
broken along with some of the beauty chairs looking worse for the wear
and tear.

Back across the parking lot where the black sedan had come from were the
two guys who had accosted me that first day. One had his wrist in a cast
and the other had a leg cast. I wasn’t sure but I would make a bet it
was those two who sic the Mexicans onto me. I made a slicing motion
across my throat. Besides shooting them in cold blooded murder, it was
the best I could do at the moment. If I ever saw them when there weren’t
any witnesses around I would remedy the situation.

They scrambled for their car and burned rubber out of the parking lot.

Reaching into the car I held my gun over the seat and ejected the
cartridge. Under the seat was a second clip. I slid it home. If the
Mexicans had a backup team I wasn’t starting the second act with a half
empty clip. I could hear the sirens of several cars in the distance.
Walking back up to the beauty parlor I swept the glass aside with my
foot. I sat down in front of the shop with my back to the wall, put my
fifty out to the side out of arms reach so the cops could see I couldn’t
pick it up without leaning over for it. With this much damage and dead
bodies their adrenalin was going to be in overload. They would shoot
first and decide what went wrong later. Anyone holding a gun when they
arrived would end up dead.

I pulled Marsha Fortner’s card out of my purse and made the call.

“Attorney Fortner’s office.” Was the bright cherry voice on the other
end.

“This is Jessica Rabbit, may I speak to Mrs. Fortner please. It is very
urgent.”

“Jessica, tell me you aren’t backing out of coming tonight?” Was the
familiar voice on the phone.

“Marsha, I’m in the shopping mall where we first met. I shot four men.
I’m going to need an attorney. Can you help?”

The phone was silent for a few seconds before she answered. “Did you
kill them?”

“Yes.”

“Do NOT answer any questions the police may ask. The only response is
you will not answer without your attorney present. I’ll be there in
twenty minutes. Don’t say anything to the police. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” There was a click as my phone went dead. I watched as nine police
cars pulled into the shopping mall.

Of course I was put in a face down position on the sidewalk amid glass
shards before I was handcuffed. To say the police were pissed because I
wasn’t talking to them was an understatement.

“Officer you don’t understand. Jessica was defending herself.” Brenda
was trying to get them to release me. The police started taking
statements from the ladies in the salon.

He shook his head. “Two of them were shot in the back.”

I nodded as I listened. I was thinking to myself. Uh huh, the driver and
the guy trying to run around behind the car. I guess I should have
waited for a repeat performance when they were coming at me?

Marsha walked up and looked at me. “Did you say anything?”

“Only that I wasn’t speaking without an attorney.”

“Good girl. Give me a chance to find out what happened and you stay
put.” She looked at the Lincoln turned into hamburger before she turned
and was walking toward the black sedan.

I almost laughed. Stay put? I was handcuffed and a big policeman was
standing over me. Sure, you can count on me. I’ll be right here when you
come back.

Marsha walked around the black sedan stopping to talk to the officers
and look over the bodies. Ten minutes or so she was headed back in my
direction with an officer in tow. She was shaking her head. “Jesus
Christ Jess, what do they teach young girls in that country you’re
from?”

She looked at the officer she had brought back with her. “David?”

He got a lopsided grin on his face. “Release her. By all accounts she
was defending herself. Mrs Fortner said she would be responsible for her
until the information is taken to the DA.”

The policeman motioned for me to stand up so he could remove the
handcuffs.

Brenda stepped out of the salon and gave me a hug after the cuffs had
been removed. “Thanks Jess. If you hadn’t warned us we could be dead
too.”

David looked at her curiously. “Warned you?”

Brenda held my hand as she nodded in agreement. “Jess motioned for us to
get down before they started shooting.”

Someone was coming across the parking lot I really didn’t want to see.
He was grinning as he walked up and stopped beside David. He looked over
the Lincoln before turning his attention back toward me. “Hello Red.
Damn nice shooting.”

He looked at the gun the officer was still holding. “I was thinking it
had to be a fifty you were carrying since you said it was bigger than
mine. These guys were the muscle for a drug dealer. Nice of you to take
care of them for us. Be warned there are ten more waiting to take their
place for everyone you remove. I don’t know what you did to piss them
off but they will be doubly so now. Watch your back.”

He was the guy that had followed me from the trade show several weeks
back. He was part of the alphabet soup companies the US kept on hand.
CIA, FBI, NSA or maybe an un named black ops. “Thanks for the advice.
I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Give her gun back. She’s going to need it.” He looked at the policeman
who was holding my fifty. He walked over to the Lincoln, reached inside
and pushed the button to pop the trunk.

I knew what he was doing and didn’t like it. I had no idea how far he
was going with his snooping.

Lifting the rifle case out of the trunk, he walked up, laid it on the
hood of the car, and opened it up. He let out a low whistle. “Damn
serious sniper rifle. Custom made. Accurate at a thousand yards?”

“seventeen” There was no sense in lying now. He knew what he was looking
at. I was praying to God he didn’t say anything about the silencer in
the case. I didn’t have a permit for it. Hell…, Jessica didn’t have a
permit for the fifty I was carrying. That was issued for Tom not Jess.
Please God don’t let the others think of asking. If they did I was going
to prison.

He let out another low whistle as he shut the case and snapped the locks
back. His eyes were smiling when he looked over at me. “I knew you
wouldn’t let it be out of reach. It’s in your blood. I never was that
good.”

I knew without a doubt he recognized the silencer and didn’t ask.

He looked at David and Marsha. “She can put someone down a mile away.
That’s for those who don’t realize it isn’t only her looks that can
kill.”

He gave me a come on motion with his hand. “I’ll drive you home since
your car seems to be non compliant for the laws of the Texas Highway
Division.”

This was getting worse by the second. “uh…, I’ll call a cab.” I didn’t
want him to know where I lived.

He could see my hesitation. “I know where you are staying. You have been
all over the society pages. It’s part of my job to be nosey.”

Marsha shook her head. “I don’t want my client talking to any
reporters.”

He laughed as he moved his coattail to the side. He pulled a Texas
Rangers badge off his belt. “Mrs. Fortner, I’m not going to question
your client as a reporter nor am I going to question her in any capacity
as a law officer. Because I said it, I can no longer be called to
testify as to anything she may or may not say in my presence.

Officer David was protesting. “She hasn’t filled out a statement yet.”

The Ranger laughed again as he rolled his eyes. “That’s because you had
her cooling her ass on the sidewalk for the past forty minutes. I was
listening to the calls on the radio. When a red headed woman was
mentioned I had a good idea who they were talking about. I had to come
over and see for myself. You’re damn lucky a second crew didn’t come in
and try to finish what the first one couldn’t. The only reason it didn’t
happen is no one figured one woman would stand a chance against four men
with automatics.”

He pointed toward the Lincoln. “I’m betting she is the only one here who
isn’t part of the spray and pray crowd. Spray enough lead downwind and
pray you hit something. What you carrying Lieutenant? A nineteen shot
Glock? Don’t be embarrassed, I’m carrying the same thing. We would shoot
the car full of holes as we watched them drive off.”

He reached inside the Lincoln and picked up the magazine I ejected on
the seat. “This was on top of all the glass on the seat not under it.
She changed clips already.”

Thumbing bullets out on the car hood he ejected two. “One will still be
in the chamber of her gun. She carries a seven shot clip. She used four
bullets. Want to count the bodies again? Go look that car over and count
the bullet holes in the car.”

“I have a great admiration for the police department. The truth is you
guys spend most of your time writing tickets for speeders and accidents.
You look for who to blame. I look for who not to blame. Five minutes
after you arrived you should have figured out Red did all of us a
favor.”

His eyes were dancing as he studied me. “Fill out your report
Lieutenant. Have Mrs. Fortner look it over. You can ask Red to sign off
on it. In the mean time I’m going to be doing everything I can to talk
her into joining the Rangers so she can embarrass the hell out of all
the rest of us on the gun range. I have a friend who works at the Four
Aces gun club. He called me the other day and said he saw some of the
damnest shooting he had ever seen in his life. Then he went on to say it
was by a woman no less. I knew exactly whom he was talking about when he
described her. I already met her.”

He turned his attention toward Marsha. “Mrs. Fortner, you have a party
tonight. If I may impose I would like to be invited too. Call it extra
security you aren’t going to pay for. Red has proved she can take care
of herself. It’s going to be impossible to hide that fifty in an evening
gown.”

He motioned back over his shoulder with his thumb. “Those guys have
friends and those friends have friends. It’s one of the reasons I’d like
to see Red join the Rangers. Even drug dealers know not to mess with us.
If she was a Ranger they would let this be a learning lesson. They would
back off, hoping they never run into her again.”

Marsha mulled that one over for a few seconds. “Okay Mister…?”

“James Daniels, Texas Ranger, at your service ma’am.”

How was I going to explain all this to Ricky? Hey Ricky all those
government guys looking for us? Why don’t I invite one home just for
giggles? Oh yes, I almost forgot I had the red Lincoln customized. They
added a lot of lead to the body and removed the windows.

The Lieutenant shook his head. “Now just a minute Ranger. You can’t stop
by in the middle of a crime scene and take the only suspect that is
still alive. I’m going to take her back to the station and…”

James sighed as he looked over at me and then at the Lieutenant. “Don’t
make me pull rank on you. You call your captain and have him call my
captain. I promise if you search the Texas Constitution you will find
the Texas Rangers have the authority above any other agency to take over
any crime scene.

A smirk spread across James face. “So far Red has played nice as you
made her park her ass. How high do you want this to go? The lady is
Norwegian Royalty.”

He waved a hand across the horizon. “Dallas police harass and book
Norwegian Princess for defending herself in a Drug Gang shoot out. Will
be the headline spread on all the papers around the world by tomorrow.
Her government, our government, their ambassadors, our ambassadors, and
our governor will be in your station for a week or more asking what in
the hell were you thinking! You will meet some of the most powerful
people in our state and wish to god you hadn’t when they are through.”

I looked over at Marsha. Her eyes were dancing as a smile spread across
her face. I thought she was going to giggle as she looked at James and
then over to Lt. David.

She nodded in agreement. “Wish I had said that. It’s true. You arrest
Jessica and you might as well plan on answering why to every politician
looking for a photo opportunity for the next two weeks. They will
crucify you for arresting a princess because she defended herself in our
wild and lawless state. You will become famous as every supermarket
tabloid prints their own version of the story.”

Lt. David swallowed as he looked me over. “Okay Ranger, I release her in
your custody. She’s your responsibility.”

James motioned for me to follow as he picked up my rifle case, the fifty
clip, and bullets off the hood of the car. “Let’s go Red.”

I held out my hand to the policeman still holding my fifty. “If you
don’t mind.”

He didn’t look too happy. “Just because you’re some damn princess.”

Lt. David’s head snapped around. “Glen!”

The policeman was glaring at me as he handed me the gun. “Yes sir.”

The Lieutenant was looking at the gun. “We will need it for ballistics
after the coroner finishes digging your bullets out of the bodies. Your
attorney can tell you when and where to bring it for a test.”

Picking up my purse off the hood of the car I shoved all the contents
back in the police had poured out when they searched it. I pulled my
hair out of the way as I slid the strap up on my shoulder and dropped
the fifty in it. “Thank you Lieutenant.”

James was still waiting as I gathered up my things. I pointed off toward
Marcela’s. “The dress I am going to wear to the party tonight is there.
Do you mind if I pick it up now?”

James turned and looked at where I was pointing. “Sure thing.” He took a
few slow steps in that direction waiting for me to catch up with him.

“Damn…,” Lt. David watched as Jessica entered the dress shop. “The lady
has ice in her veins. She kills four men and goes shopping for a dress.”

“Which reminds me, I have to get ready for a party. Thanks for your
understanding David.” Marsha smiled at him.

Lt. David looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. “Uh huh,
riiiight”

Fifty minutes later we were in James Ford pickup headed toward the
house. He glanced over in my direction for a sec. “Who are you Red?”

“Uh…, I’m Jessica.” He knew my name. Why was he asking?

“Yes and I’m the President. You’re no more a Norwegian Princess than I’m
a Norwegian Prince. You’re Texas born and raised through and through.
You talk Texan, walk Texan, and act Texan.

To say I was scared silly was an understatement. I ran a dozen options
through my mind and none of them looked good. If I pulled my gun out I
might have to kill him. Would he follow orders if I was holding a gun on
him? He was a Texas Ranger.

He took a quick look in my direction. “Miss who ever you are. What I’m
about to say isn’t to be repeated. If you tell anyone nothing good will
come out of it. A couple days ago I saw an interesting topic on a
friends desk. He is good about scanning all the incoming data from
problems all over the world. The data was about a drug lord and several
others killed at what seemed to be a lab of some sort in Mexico. No big
deal. They are killing one another all the time. No one could figure out
what the purpose of the lab was. It wasn’t a drug making lab. What
interest could the drug dealers have in it? The six men who were killed
had the same problem as the men in the mall we just left. Single bullet
kill shot from a fifty caliber.

He glanced in my direction. I didn’t have anything to say. I was waiting
for him to tell me I was under arrest. Which meant things were going to
get terribly ugly. I wasn’t going to prison.

“The article listed a man whom they thought owned the lab. They didn’t
have a name. He was with a woman that same night. Someone took pictures
of them together at a party earlier that evening. Both of them are
wanted for questioning.”

He pulled into our driveway and killed his pickup before turning in the
seat to focus on me. “The man in the picture is Ricky Clawson. He is
wanted by the CIA, along with Thomas Baker, on an outstanding warrant. I
tried to find out what the warrant was for. It is classified. Means the
feds are fishing, hoping to build a case after they pull him in. The
woman in the picture is the Norwegian Princess.”

James sighed as he turned to look down the street. “You are living on
borrowed time. I have no idea what you are into. I’m not going to ask if
you are an undercover agent.”

He turned his attention back toward me. “I managed to bring all the
pieces together because I had met you. You can bet your ruby slippers it
won’t take too long for others to figure out the same thing if they
haven’t already. If you aren’t government you better be getting ready
for some big time hassle from the guys wanting your friends. Mrs.
Fortner is a good attorney. She isn’t a big league player for the kind
of people who are going to pull you in.”

I nodded. “You’re not going to arrest me?”

“For what? There aren’t any warrants on you.”

“What about Ricky? You going to arrest him?” I was hoping Ricky didn’t
come out of the house if he saw us sitting in the driveway.

“My job. Unless you’re going to pull that damn gun you’re so deadly
with. Then I would carefully consider all my options and leave providing
I could.”

“Then you would come back with those fifty Rangers you threatened me
with weeks back.”

His eyes danced in amusement. “No, I’d send fifty Rangers while I worked
on the arrest warrant.”

I knew it was his way of joking. Live or die, a Ranger would never be
left behind when a job needed to be done. I opened my door, slid out and
retrieved my dress. “I’ll see you at the party tonight?”

He got out and picked up my rifle case, and extra cartridge before
walking around to my side of the pickup. “I’ll be there.”

“I appreciate the ride. Leave my things on the hood of the car.” I
motioned toward the older Lincoln parked in the driveway.

He looked toward the house. “You’re not inviting me in?”

“No.”

“Ricky and Thomas home?” He focused in on my eyes.

I didn’t answer as I waited to see what he was going to do.

“Damn Red, you’re in deep. I’ll see you at the party tonight.” He put my
rifle case on the hood of the car before getting in his pickup and
leaving.

Until then I didn’t know how much this conversation had bothered me. I
was shaking all over as I watched James turn at the end of the block and
disappear. I was prepared to do whatever it took to defend Ricky and the
adrenalin rush was used up. The Mexicans were trying to kill me. That
was self preservation. To think it would be necessary to shoot a Texas
Ranger wasn’t in my mental makeup.

Ricky was waiting when I walked into the house. He looked serious. “The
guy who brought you home is the same one who followed you out at the
trade show. Have they surrounded us yet?”

I laid the party dress across the back of one of the chairs. “He knows
most…, some of the story. His name is James Daniels. He is a Texas
Ranger. Said there is a warrant out on you and me…,”

Ricky cut me off. “He didn’t pull you in and wait for backup to search
the house?”

I would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so serious. Pointing
down at the front of myself I shook my head. “My disguise is foolproof.
Yours not so much. He had no idea he was talking to Thomas Baker. The
party is still on for tonight at Marsha’s. He is going to be there…,
Ricky we can’t go. He will try and arrest you and I will try and stop
him.”

Ricky was silent for many long pregnant seconds before he sighed. “You
still need to go. If you don’t he will know he struck pay dirt and will
be back with a search warrant for the house.”

“By the way, not that it makes any difference but what did you do with
the Lincoln?”

“It’s in the mall shot full of holes…,”

“SAY WHAT? OH SWELL!” Ricky gave me a full body scan. “At least you
don’t seem to have any holes. Cars are replaceable. You not so much. I
could care less about the car. How did it happen Jess?”

Linda walked in from the hallway. My hand immediately went to my purse
and the fifty. She was holding a phone up to her ear.

“Okay.” She closed it up. “Jess ran into your Mexican friends. Four of
them won’t ever bother anyone again.”

She stared at me and shook her head. “All my man could talk about was
the way Jess took care of them. He had never seen anything like it. She
pulled them in like mice to cheese and then took them out.”

It wasn’t the idea Linda had someone following me that bothered me. It
was the idea I hadn’t picked him out that worried me.

Ricky’s eyes closed to slits as he stared at me. “Okay, this has got out
of control. I’m going to the lab to pick up my research. You and Maria
go to the plane and wait.”

I shook my head. “The hell you say. I’m going with you. And I’m the one
walking into that lab, not you.”

“Jess, I know exactly where everything is at and what I want. It will
take me seconds to walk in and out of that lab while it will take you
minutes. I’m not going to debate this with you.”

As bad as I hated to admit it Ricky was right. Seconds might mean the
difference between life and death or prison. “I drive.”

Linda, Maria or whatever name she was going by shook her head no. “Jess,
I think in your country they call the person who protected the
strongbox, ridding shotgun. That was because he could shoot better than
the driver. We’re going to follow Ricky. Any problems arise they will be
caught between you and me.”

Ricky nodded. “Grab your suitcase Jess. We aren’t coming back.”

I headed to the bedroom as I mulled the plans over. I didn’t like it but
waiting for lots of government agents to close in was worse.

I tossed Ricky’s jewelry in a bag and put underclothes, jeans, and a
blouse in another bag. I slipped off my dress and into jeans, tan satin
blouse, cowboy boots, and cowboy hat.

Ricky was in the kitchen waiting when I walked in carrying a couple
bags. He looked surprised. “Where’s your suitcases?”

“Ricky, I’m not running with a suitcase in my hand. I have your jewelry
in the bag. The dresses stay. They along with the rest of my clothes are
too bulky to be carrying. I have a change in my bag. That’s it. You
ready?”

Linda came in behind me. “Jeeze Vegas, even when you dress down you look
damn hot.”

I turned to look. Linda was wearing black pants and a black blouse with
a new rifle slung over her shoulder. It was a match to the one she gave
me. “Speak for yourself hon.”

Another woman came out of the bedroom wearing black pants, black blouse,
and she had a rifle slung over her shoulder. It was an automatic with
clips taped together. She could probably put a hundred rounds downwind
with what she was carrying.

“Serena?” I was guessing the lady was Ricky’s new handler Linda had
mentioned weeks back. I looked her over. She was a beauty that would
turn any mans head.

“We going, or do we need to discuss the plans again that aren’t really
plans?” Linda waited for a response.

“Load up.” Ricky opened the garage door.

I noticed a brown Mustang in the garage. “Linda’s car?”

Ricky headed to the Lincoln. “Uh huh. One of Jimmy’s specials. She said
it would do over two hundred without even gasping for air.”

After tossing the bags into the rear seat I took the rifle out of the
case and slid a clip home before putting the case in the rear seat.
Ricky was pulling out of the driveway as I was reloading the fifty clip
I had used earlier. I slid it down between my belt and waist hoping I
didn’t need it or the rifle.

==============================================================

Two hours and seventeen minutes later we were parked on a side street in
an industrial complex in Ft. Worth. Ricky flipped a switch leading to
some wires going under the seat. “Try your cell phone Jess. It should be
dead.”

I flipped it open. There was no signal. “It is.”

He nodded. “Okay, here goes nothing.” The Lincoln started rolling
forward.

Minutes later Ricky stopped in front of a non descript brown metal
building. “Wish me luck. If things go wrong you hightail it out of here
and don’t look back or wait on me.”

He opened his door and headed for the building. I chambered a round up
into the rifle and my fifty. Looking at the buildings around us I saw
security cameras up on the corners. They weren’t all pointed to protect
the buildings they were on. I counted six that were focused on the
building Ricky had just walked into.

A black car was hitting the high spots in the pavement headed down the
street toward us. I opened my door stood up and pointed the rifle at the
car. The sound of squealing tires echoed between the buildings. The
driver’s door and passenger door flew open. Guns were pointed in my
direction.

“RICKY, WE HAVE COMPANY! Keep your ass down.” I prayed he didn’t come
running out of the building.

“FEDERAL AGENTS, PUT YOUR WEAPON DOWN!” Came from the direction of the
car.

“Ah hell” I had no doubt they had rifles in the trunk of the car. They
probably called for help when they hit the brakes. This situation was
going to get bad in a hurry if I didn’t get Ricky in the car and leave.
Trying to hold a position when a hundred agents are closing in is not
winnable under any circumstances.

Two blocks behind the black car a brown car pulled into the street and
then behind one of the buildings. Linda ran across the street to the
other side.

And then all Hell broke lose. Serena let lose with her automatic as she
hosed down the rear of the black sedan. Linda was putting holes in the
doors beside the two agents. They should have dove back into the car.
They bailed to the side. The driver fell flat on the pavement losing his
grip on his weapon in the process. His gun was on the pavement ahead of
him. I took care of his gun. The passenger sprinted toward one of the
buildings. Serena churned the ground in front of him. He stopped and
turned toward me. I put a bullet in front of him. He held up his hands.
Linda took the gun out of his hand. I was doubly glad she wasn’t aiming
at me. The girl was deadly accurate.

After all the gunfire it was deathly quiet. “RICKY, GET YOUR ASS OUT
HERE BECAUSE THIS RIDE IS LEAVING!”

I put a bullet into the front of the car where I thought the battery
might be and three more into the radiator.

Linda took the tires out from under it.

Ricky ran from the building and into the driver’s seat in less than five
seconds. He burned rubber leaving. By the time he got to the main road
he slowed down and pulled into traffic as if he was on a Sunday drive.

“Did you get it?” I wanted to know if Ricky was going to be able to
rebuild his lab.

“Yes. We get to the plane and the states will be past tense for me. I
won’t be back.”

I was reloading the rifle. “Linda is good Ricky. Damn good. Better than
me. She has been trained in this business. I was trained to kill. There
is a huge difference. If it had been only me, there would be two dead
agents back there. Linda and Serena scared the piss out of them. They
didn’t kill them because they didn’t need to.”

Ricky nodded. “Are you trying to tell me I need to hire them and fire
you?”

“That’s kinda cold. But yeah since you put it like that.” I looked up to
see if I could see any choppers in the sky. I was positive we were part
of a massive manhunt by now.

Nineteen minutes later Ricky pulled the car into a hanger. The brown
Mustang pulled in behind us. Ricky and Linda were like a well oiled team
as they snapped the towbar onto the plane and pulled it from the hanger.
It surprised me when Linda and Serena loaded their gear into the plane
as I was loading ours.

“Everyone settled?” Ricky glanced in back. He and Linda were up front in
the pilot and copilot seats. The turbines were starting to spool up.
Linda was on the radio asking for permission to taxi to the end of the
runway for takeoff. It was obvious the two women were going with us. Had
Ricky sold his idea to the Russians?

Minutes later we were airborne I felt the wheels retract. Ricky came to
the back as Serena walked up and took his place. “What’s the deal
Ricky?”

He sat down in the seat beside me and took my left hand before sliding
an engagement band and wedding ring on my finger.

I didn’t think anything Ricky could do would shock me by now but that
did. I was looking from the rings to his eyes, to the rings, to…,

“Marry me Jess.”

“MARRY YOU? HAVE YOU FORGOT WHO I AM? WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN
THINKING?” I know my eyes were big, as I was shocked out of my mind.

“Marry me. Everything I own will be yours if something happens to me. It
will be legal. We will get married in Stalingrad. I am the reason you
are who you are. I’m sorry…,”

“I thought we put that sorry bit behind us. Let it go. It’s past tense.
I don’t want your money, nor your apology. You saved my life. I wouldn’t
have picked this one for a substitute, but it’s growing on me. You don’t
owe me anything. I owe you my life. Let’s let it go at that.” I started
to pull the rings off to give them back.

He put his hand over mind and stopped me. “Then do me a favor if you
think you owe me. Marry me Jess. I have investments all over the world.
You won’t need to worry about looking after anything as they will take
care of themselves. I will put everything I own in your name if you
won’t marry me.

My emotions took a tumble. “Ricky, we’ve always been the best of
friends. I don’t want your money. I’m not even sure I want Tom to come
back.”

“One more favor than?”

“What?”

“Kiss me?” He waited.

I mulled that one over. From that first night I liked it every time
Ricky touched me or I got to put my hands on him. It wasn’t just to get
even for him doing this to me like I first thought. I actually felt a
soft desire for more than a touch. I leaned over and pulled him in. And
loved every blissful second of that kiss as he returned it.

My heart and my emotions were racing as we broke apart. I was positive
Ricky had put that in my mind when he turned me into a woman. I was a
guy. Guys don’t kiss guys unless they are gay. Despite how much I was
trying to deny it, I had been wanting to bed Ricky and try out the
equipment from day one. Tom was gone and Jess had taken his place.

“Okay.”

“Okay what?”

“I’ll marry you. Gonna get pretty damn awkward when you bring Tom back.”

He was studying my eyes. ”Does Tom want to come back?”

I shook my head. “No. You still going to rebuild the machine?”

“Yes. There is something else. Linda wants to be my best man and Serena
wants to be your bridesmaid.”

I think I was a little disappointed but not much. “You already discussed
this with them?”

“They are going to help us rebuild the machine. We will set up a lab in
Russia. I’m not giving my ideas to our government. They would confiscate
it and lock all of us up so we couldn’t talk about it.”

“How long will it take to rebuild it?”

He put his fingers on the rings. “Two years max with all the help.”

Looking at the rings I thought of what an unforeseeable future we were
headed into. “I’m not giving up Jessica.”

Ricky leaned over and gave me another long kiss. “And neither am I.”

============================================================= There was
a reason the Ranger put on his uniform for the party. The uniform was a
deterrent as most people, even the dumb ones, didn’t want to go up
against a Texas Ranger. Red needed protection and this was the best way
of providing it. If he stayed close to her the gossip mill would spread
the word she was friends with the Texas Rangers.

“Two agents are down.” Came across on his radio and got his attention.

“Multiple shots fired. One of the shooters was a red headed woman. APB
on a tan car believed to be a Lincoln. Requesting assistance at
Blackwelder and Crooks Road. Woman was with a man. They had help. May be
as many as ten shooters. Armed and extremely dangerous.”

“Oh no Red. What have you gone and done now?” James shook his head as
he remembered the woman he was talking to shortly before. He knew where
the address was. It was in Ft Worth. James kicked the pickup in gear as
he turned on his emergency lights.

Reports kept coming in as James sped toward the shooting scene. Police
and highway patrol had set up rolling roadblocks across half the city
stopping every tan car on the roads searching for a red headed woman.

There were so many police cars and federal agent cars at the scene James
had to park two blocks away. Crime scene tape was strung around like
spider web. He was looking at almost sixty little flags planted in the
ground marking all the empty shell casings. “That wasn’t my girl.”

He walked across the street and looked at the empty shell casings with
little flags planted around them. Eighteen of them. He shook his head.
Same caliber as her rifle but…, “No not her.”

He walked up behind the black sedan and studied the bullet holes in the
trunk before circling the car looking at the bullet holes. He stopped
when he was looking at the equally spaced bullet holes in the front.
“Now that’s my girl.”

James stepped over where the two agents were sitting in the back of an
ambulance. Like little kids who had got the bejeebers scared out of
them, they were repeating their story to anyone who would listen.

“She tried to kill us.” Ted had bandages on his right hand where the gun
had been yanked out by Linda’s bullet.

“She ran before we could get back to the car.” Larry had bandages on his
hand and knees where he skinned himself up on the pavement.

James was laughing as he shook his head. “If Red wanted to kill you then
you would be very dead. She was playing nice. I don’t know who she had
backing her. They also were playing nice. Every hole I looked at was not
to kill you but to scare you. If Red missed it was on purpose. A word of
advice to the wise. Next time you see a redheaded woman carrying a gun,
try and not tick her off. She puts a definite end to the debate when
she’s pissed.”

He walked over to the building with all the tape strung around it. There
were little flags by bullet casings on the pavement. He counted six.
“Four in the front of the car. What did she do with the other two?”

He walked into the building. Computers, scopes, and electronic equipment
were on shelves stacked to the ceiling. He leaned over to look behind
one of the computers.

“Don’t touch anything.” Came from a guy in a black suit.

“Surely.” James straightened up and circled the room looking behind the
equipment. He stopped when he got to the east wall. Two computers had
their sides off and wires hanging out. James was looking at the APU
battery array behind them. The computers weren’t plugged into a monitor.
He slipped the plug from the monitor into the computer.

DOWNLOAD ERROR…….. RESET………..DOWNLOAD ERROR……….RESET

Kept scrolling across the screen.

The guy in the black suit stormed across the room. “What in the hell did
you do! I told you to not touch anything.”

James looked at the guy and shook his head. “Did you notice nothing in
here is plugged in except these two computers. They are on and running
without hard drives and the indicator lights have been removed. I’m no
genius but this place is a joke. Someone mentioned the Philadelphia
Project. If that’s what this was supposed to be then someone was a fool.

The guy glared at James. “This is federal business.”

James was headed for the door. “Be my guest. You smart fed boys have
been played by someone a whole lot smarter than you. Red, what were you
after?”

Walking out into the street he stopped by the six casings again and
looked down the street. James nodded as he looked at the gun still in
the street. The gun was pushed away from where he was standing. That was
her fifth shot. He was chuckling as he looked at the two agents still
repeating their story about her trying to kill them. “You guys have no
idea.”

For six weeks James had to put up with razzing from his fellow Rangers
about giving Jessica a ride home so she could go out and shoot up a
couple federal agents. It was all done in a half joking manner but the
fact was, the woman he had drove home quickly ended up on the FBI most
wanted list.

James was called into his captain’s office. Frank was a no nonsense man
with a lot of years as a Ranger behind him. He could have retired
fourteen years earlier. James knew it was because Frank felt he was
making a difference in holding the line between the good guys and bad
ones.

Frank held out a couple bulletins to James. “Thought you might like to
know about your girl. The FBI aren’t the only ones wanting to get their
hands on her.”

It kinda rubbed James a little both ways as everyone kept referring to
Red as “his girl”. The joke had been carried a little too long to be
funny any longer. “They catch her?”

“No. Those four men she killed in the shopping mall? They were working
for a Colombian drug cartel. Ernesto Escobedo put a two hundred thousand
dollar price on bringing her back to him. He gets his hands on her it
won’t be for hugs and kisses.”

James was looking at the bulletins Frank had handed him. “The Mexicans
too?”

Frank looked about as serious as James had ever seen him. “That lab down
in Acapulco? It seems they have figured out she was there too. Ignacio
was the drug lord she took out along with all his lieutenants. His
brother Raul inherited the business and wants payback. He put a three
hundred thousand dollar bounty on her head.”

James shook his head as he looked at the bulletins. “She does seem to
have a knack for poking at the hornets nest. It’s a shame she isn’t
wearing a Ranger badge. We would have bragging rights she was one of us.
She would have the rest of us guarding her back.”

Frank nodded in agreement.

James looked up at Frank. “Captain…”

Frank shook his head. “NO! We are not recruiting someone on the FBI most
wanted list.”

===============================================================

We were on a yacht in the Mediterranean. Ricky’s head was in my lap. I
was massaging his shoulders. “You ever get homesick?”

He opened his eyes and looked up at me. “Not as long as you are by my
side. Why? You want to go back to Oklahoma?”

Looking off across the waters I thought of how both of us land locked
Okies had come to be on a ship in the Med. “Kinda. I’d like to see what
the old place looks like now after five years.”

Ricky sit up and turned to look at me. “Tom…,”

I reached out and put my hands on his lips as I shook my head. “Tom is
happy and so am I. If you are tired of me I will sign everything you
gave me back into your name, give you a divorce, and never look back.”

“Are you tired of me? I mean look at you Jess. You haven’t aged a day
since that fateful night. I know how men look at you. You could have
your choice of any young stud. I’m older, a few more gray hairs, a few
more winkles, I don’t move as fast as I use to.”

Leaning over I gave Ricky a kiss. “Maybe, but you still make love the
same way you use to. I’ll never leave you as long as you want me. I love
you with all my heart. God gave me a life. You saved it and rebuilt it.
I’m not sure there are guy angels and girl angels. Maybe they just are
angels and when God makes a new life and puts one of His angels in that
body we accept whatever it turns out to be, whether it’s a boy or a
girl. I received the greatest gift of all. I got to try out both. I like
the girl side best.”

“Okay, when we go back would you mind if your grandmother took you?” His
eyes were dancing.

“Grandmother?” Where was Ricky going with this? My grandparents were
over forty years past tense.

“Linda said I would make a great someone’s grandmother if I needed to go
back to the states.”

“In your machine?” Ricky wasn’t the only one who could run that machine
since Linda and Serena had helped rebuild it.

“Nah…, makeup. I’m not stepping inside that damn contraption. Too much
can go wrong. Mexicans blow it up, get stuck in some damn exotic babe
body, and…,”

I gave him a light slap on the face. “You’re a sexist and a pervert.”

Then I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

His eyes were dancing. “Yeah, do that again. I think I like it.”

The End?